Secrecy of capital flows and hidden wealth abroad is a serious threat to an efficient tax system. This issue received wide media coverage associated with the disclosures of the Panama Papers case.
In the global economy, international cooperation is essential to enable tax authorities to check the information given by corporations and private individuals with respect to their income and assets. Norwegian authorities have in recent years signed two important agreements on the exchange of tax information.
In 2013, Norway signed, like many other countries, a bilateral agreement with the United States on the exchange of tax information. According to this agreement, often referred to as FATCA (the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), Norwegian tax authorities is committed to gather information from Norwegian financial institutions and send information about individuals and corporations who are tax domiciled in the United States to American authorities. Similarly, the Norwegian tax authorities receive information from the United States.
In October 2014, Norway signed a multilateral agreement which obliges Norway to implement the OECD standard for automatic exchange of tax information. The CRS Agreement (Common Reporting Standards), entered into force on 1 January 2016. So far, approximately 80 countries have signed the agreement.