27.11.2024

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Lyudmila Petkova took part in the 17th plenary meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). At an official ceremony, Ms. Lyudmila Petkova signed the documents for the accession of the Republic of Bulgaria to the Multilateral Agreement between Competent Authorities on the Automatic Exchange of Information under the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. The agreement allows the exchange of information between our country and non-EU partner jurisdictions as a result of which we will be receiving essential information for determining the tax liabilities of Bulgarian residents and businesses for income and assets they own abroad.

Our accession confirms Bulgaria’s authority as a country that follows and implements the international standards for tax transparency and effective administrative cooperation with its partners and demonstrates our commitment to the work of the OECD and the fight against tax avoidance. In November 2023 Bulgaria joined the Joint Statement on a Collective Engagement to Implement the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) developed by the OECD.

During a working breakfast before the start of the plenary session, the Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Lyudmila Petkova met with the President of the Republic of Paraguay Santiago Peña.

Minister Petkova also delivered the opening address in the panel on ‘Delivering assurance for the future on confidentiality and data safeguarding’ which took place during the plenary meeting. “We live in a world of rapidly evolving technologies where the artificial intelligence is becoming widely spread and they also bring with them the constant threat of cyber-attacks and other risks to confidentiality and information security. It is therefore necessary for all jurisdictions to have strong safeguards in place, especially in the context of automatic exchange of information. Bulgaria supports the decision of the Global Forum to undertake a further round of Confidentiality and Data Safeguards assessments with a new monitoring mechanism and considers it a step in the right direction”, she said to all session participants.

The discussion focused on sharing experiences on peer review processes and defining the ways to address the challenges with confidentiality and data safeguards which tax authorities around the world face – an issue of critical importance in the context of the growing automatic exchange of tax information and the increasing number of jurisdictions engaged with it.

The event which takes place from 25 to 29 November 2024 in Asuncion, Republic of Paraguay, brings together delegations from 171 Global Forum member jurisdictions, international observers, as well as representatives from organisations, civil society and academia. The main topic of this year’s meeting relates to enhancing tax transparency by increasing efficiency through state-of-the-art achievements and accelerated implementation of information exchange standards.

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