Israel signed today the [Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters](http://www.oecd.org/tax/exchange-of-tax-information/conventiononmutualadministrativeassistanceintaxmatters.htm), making it the 91st jurisdiction to join the world’s leading instrument for boosting transparency and combating offshore tax evasion.

*“Israel has recognised the importance of improving tax transparency and has implemented the necessary reforms in recent years to ensure that its legal and regulatory framework is up to the task,”* said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría after a signing ceremony at OECD headquarters with His Excellency, H.E. Carmel Shama-Hacohen, Israeli Ambassador to the OECD. *“Today’s signing is a further confirmation that Israel is dedicated to the fight against offshore tax avoidance and evasion and aims to crack down on illicit financial flows.”*

The Convention provides for all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters: exchange of information on request, spontaneous exchange, automatic exchange, tax examinations abroad, simultaneous tax examinations and assistance in tax collection. It guarantees extensive safeguards for the protection of taxpayers’ rights.

The Convention was developed jointly by the OECD and the Council of Europe in 1988. It was amended in 2010, to respond to a G20 call that it be aligned to the international standard on exchange of information and opened to all countries. The Convention has since become truly global, and is now seen as the instrument for swift implementation of the new [Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters](http://www.oecd.org/tax/exchange-of-tax-information/standard-for-automatic-exchange-of-financial-information-in-tax-matters.htm) developed by the OECD and G20 countries. It will also be critical for implementation of automatic exchange of country by country reports under the OECD/G20 [Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project](http://www.oecd.org/tax/beps.htm), and is a powerful tool in the fight against illicit financial flows.

The 91 jurisdictions participating in the Convention can be found [here](http://www.oecd.org/ctp/exchange-of-tax-information/Status_of_convention.pdf).