OECD World Forum and exchanging information upon request

Before the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, the Prince’s Government had reached agreements on fiscal transparency with twelve countries. Since 23 September 2009, the OECD Word Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has classified Monaco within the group of countries which "have substantially implemented the internationally recognised standards".

Starting in 2009, the OECD World Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes introduced a procedure for evaluating all members in two phases.
The world Forum uses a peer review process (involving the other member countries) to assess whether its members have put in place an adequate legal and regulatory framework for the exchange of information for tax purposes (Phase 1 review). The second phase involves determining whether this framework is effectively applied (Phase 2 review). 

PHASE 1: Evaluation of existing legislation

The Phase 1 review for Monaco provided an opportunity to evaluate the existing legislation. This review, made public in a Phase 1 report, published in September 2010, concluded that overall, the legislation in force in the Principality met the OECD standards.

PHASE 2: Effective implementation

The objective of the Phase 2 review is to assess the capacity of States to respond to requests for information for tax purposes which may be submitted to them on the basis of the agreements signed. The review for Monaco was carried out during the second half of 2012.

The Phase 2 report, published on the official OECD website on 31 july 2013, notes the progress made by Monaco in ensuring its domestic legislation complies with OECD standards, and also that the Monegasque government has properly implemented all of these provisions in order to guarantee that information for tax purposes can be exchanged on request, as part of the corpus of bilateral agreements signed by Monaco.

For details of bilateral agreements, click here.

Following the combined Phase 1 and 2 reviews of the first 50 States, the countries were rated by the World Forum.

A report submitted for comment to all OECD World Forum members was ratified during the sixth annual meeting of the World Forum which took place on 21–22 November 2013 in Jakarta.

The report judged Monaco to be "largely compliant" with international standards for fiscal transparency, alongside countries such as Germany and the United States.

The Principality achieved an overall rating of "largely compliant", with six "compliant", three "largely compliant", one "partially compliant" and no "non-compliant" ratings.

The legal framework and Monegasque practice regarding the exchange of information on request have since been reassessed to ascertain compliance with international standards on the exchange of information on request, particularly regarding the new rules introduced in 2016. This assessment follows a multi-year process following the Global Forum's last assessment in 2012.
During the meeting held in Paris from 26 February to 1 March 2018, the OECD peer reviewers gave an overall rating of "compliant".

This new "compliant" rating from the Global Forum is an improvement on the rating obtained in 2013 and is further recognition of Monaco's commitment to implementing and updating its legislation and practices in line with the development of international standards in tax transparency and reflects the decisions taken by H.S.H. the Sovereign Prince since 2009.