The OECD has reported that today the Seychelles became the 85th signatory of the [Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters](http://www.oecd.org/ctp/exchange-of-tax-information/conventiononmutualadministrativeassistanceintaxmatters.htm). The signing of the Convention represents another important step in Seychelles’ efforts to improve its legal framework and practices in the field of [exchange of information for tax purposes](http://www.oecd.org/tax/exchange-of-tax-information/).
The Convention provides for all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters: exchange of information on request, spontaneous exchange, automatic exchange of information, tax examinations abroad, simultaneous tax examinations and assistance in tax collection, while simultaneously protecting taxpayers’ rights.
The Convention was developed jointly by the OECD and the Council of Europe in 1988 and amended in 2010 to respond to a call by the G20 to align it to the international standard on exchange of information and to open it to all countries, in particular to ensure that developing countries could benefit from the new more transparent environment. The Convention continues to be a key item on the tax transparency agenda of the G20, which has repeatedly called on all jurisdictions to sign the Convention and has asked the [Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes](http://www.oecd.org/tax/transparency/) to report on progress made by its members in signing the Convention.
The 85 jurisdictions participating in the Convention can be found [here](http://www.oecd.org/ctp/exchange-of-tax-information/Status_of_convention.pdf).