Tax Cooperation through Exchange of tax Related Information According to Tax Model Tax Agreement

Abstract Exchange of information is referred to as (stock-in-trade) for tax administrations because it improves their abilities to implement tax legislations efficiently. The difficulty to obtain such information could be overridden either domestically through unilateral legislations or/and internationally through multilateral/ bilateral agreements(mainly tax treaties). The increase and expansion in cross-border transactions through globalization and governments negative competition to attract direct foreign investment (by tax incentives and reduced rates) require more effective transparency, tax cooperation and information exchange for tax purposes to ensure that taxpayers have no safe haven (tax haven) to hide their income and assets, and to ensure that they pay the actual due tax in the right jurisdiction. This highlights the importance of explaining exchange of tax-related information as one of the major aspect of international tax cooperation in combating tax evasion and double taxation, particularly according to the widely spread Model agreements such as the United Nations Model Tax Convention (UN MODEL) and the OECD Model Tax Convention (OECD MODEL). Keywords: income tax, tax evasion, double taxation, international tax cooperation.