G7 Research Group G7 Information Centre
Summits |  Meetings |  Publications |  Research |  Search |  Home |  About the G7 Research Group
University of Toronto

Transparency of Beneficial Ownership to Battle Tax Evasion and Illicit Finance: An Overview of G8 Commitments at Lough Erne

Denisse Rudich
G8 Research Group
June 18, 2013

British prime minister David Cameron announced galvanizing international action against tax evasion as a key agenda item at this week's G8 summit in Lough Erne.

The United Kingdomgovernment indicated that it would seek the following action as part of the G8 presidency:

Prior to the summit, the UK invited leaders from the overseas territories and Crown dependencies to attend the Open for Growth: Trade, Tax and Transparency event. Agreement with the overseas territories and Crown dependencies was reached in a variety of areas. Namely, the overseas territories and Crown dependencies agreed to:

This follows a move made by the Crown dependencies and overseas territories in May 2013 to join the G5 pilot for the automatic exchange of tax information. Data to be shared includes names, addresses, dates of birth, account numbers, account balances and details of payments made into those accounts.

During the Lough ErneSummit itself, the UK issued the UK Action Plan to Prevent the Misuse of Companies and Legal Arrangements and the G8 issued the G8 Action Plan Principles to Prevent the Misuse of Companies and Legal Arrangements.

Details of the high-level principles for G8 countries to develop action plans and the specifics of the UK action plan both are provided below.

The G8 Action Plan recognizes that "one-size fits all approach" may not be the most effective and as a result a core set of high-level principles were issued, which are consistent with the FATF40. The G8 further committed to publish national action plans based on the core principles to tackle money laundering and tax evasion.

To improve accountability, the G8 has agreed to self-report on progress made against individual action plans to the FATF.

G8 Action Plan Principles

  • UK Action Plan