By adopting the Action 5 minimum standard of the OECD BEPS project, San Marino has introduced both substantial activity requirements to define the tax regimes possible in the territory and a transparency framework to ensure the timely exchange of information required by the standard, in cooperation with the competent authorities of other jurisdictions, when certain internationally agreed conditions are met.
The document to which the members of the Inclusive Framework, including San Marino, must adhere in order to adopt this standard is the Action 5 final report, entitled Countering harmful tax practices more effectively taking into account transparency and substance, which was drafted mainly in 2015 and followed by the OECD FHTP Working Group.
With the positive peer review that took place during the FHTP meeting in October 2018, San Marino was removed from the “grey list” of EU tax havens in Annex 2 (Fair Taxation - 2.1 Existence of harmful regimes) published by the EU Code of Conduct Group on 20 December 2018.
The Transparency Framework was finally fully adopted in February 2020, with an internal circular sent by the Department of Finance and Budget, thanks to which San Marino received again a positive assessment without recommendations from the OECD FHTP Secretariat.
