OECD Bribery Awareness Handbook for Tax Examiners 2009

The aim of the present Bribery Awareness Handbook for Tax Examiners is to assist countries in making their tax examiners aware of the various bribery techniques used as well as giving them the tools to detect and identify bribes of foreign public officials and bribes to public officials in the domestic context.



Countries may wish to use this Handbook and provide it to their tax officials in the context of their training programmes. Countries may also wish to use it to design their own Handbook that could enable them to incorporate their specific circumstances. For that purpose the Handbook identifies where countryspecific information can be added. The Handbook may also be used as a checklist during tax examinations.


Table of Contents
Message from the Secretary General
Recommendation of the Council on Tax Measures for Further Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions
Executive Summary
Background on Bribery Initiative
Relevant domestic tax provision
Definition of bribery
Obligation or not for tax examiners to report bribes identified to the criminal law enforcement authorities of their own countries
Indicators of fraud or bribery
Examination plan and compliance checks
Information from other government agencies
Information available from tax treaty partners
Examination techniques
Interviews
Evaluating the taxpayer’s internal controls
Special examination procedures
Exhibit 1: Questionnaire for use in examinations
Exhibit 2: Guidelines for the use of the corporate slush fund questionnaire in subsequent year examinations
Monitoring bribes: Standard form for tax examiners to report bribes identified to their headquarters
Form for tax examiners to report bribes identified to their headquarters
Key OECD anti-corruption documents