Introduction

Abstract

The first OECD Bribery Awareness Handbook for Tax Examiners was launched in 2001 and updated in 2009 to support the implementation by countries of the 1996 Recommendation on the Tax Deductibility of Bribes to Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and the 2009 Recommendation on Tax Measures for Further Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. The 2009 Recommendation requires that OECD member countries and other parties to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention explicitly disallow the tax deductibility of bribes to foreign public officials in an effective manner, and the Handbook provided practical guidance to help tax examiners identify suspicious payments likely to be foreign bribes so that the denial of deductibility could be enforced, and bribe payments detected and reported to the appropriate domestic law enforcement authorities. In 2010, the OECD issued a Recommendation to Facilitate Co-operation between Tax and Other Law Enforcement Authorities to Combat Serious Crimes. This Recommendation required countries to implement effective legal and administrative frameworks and provide guidance to facilitate reporting by tax authorities of suspicions of all serious crimes arising out of performance of their duties. This covers all forms of corruption, including that arising in a domestic or international context, and by private and public officials. To support the implementation of the 2010 Recommendation, the latest version of the Handbook considers various types of corruption that a tax examiner or auditor are most likely to encounter in their work, including different forms of bribery, and not just the bribery of foreign public officials. This wider focus also reflects the fact that, in the course of their activities, tax examiners and auditors may find indicators of possible corruption but may not be in a position to determine whether or not it concerns foreign public officials. This version of the Handbook was developed by a team comprising specialists from Austria, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United States and includes input from the OECD Task Force on Tax Crimes and Other Crimes and the OECD Working Group on Bribery.