On September 8, 2025, three days later than initially announced, The OECD released a report titled: “Revised BEPS Action 5 Transparency Framework on Tax Rulings”.

The BEPS Action 5 minimum standard includes the Standard on the spontaneous exchange of information on rulings (the “transparency framework”). The BEPS Action 5 Report sets out that as part of its ongoing work to monitor the implementation of the transparency framework, “the FHTP will also evaluate the effectiveness of the framework and whether the scope of the rulings covered, and the information provided by tax administrations, appropriately balance the need to identify BEPS risks with the administrative burden for the sending and receiving jurisdictions”.

The Inclusive Framework on BEPS (“Inclusive Framework”) has undertaken and finalised the effectiveness review of the transparency framework. The results are presented in this document. The work undertaken relates to three aspects: (i) the scope of the transparency framework; (ii) the terms of reference; and (iii) the methodology for the peer review. The changes to these three parts are summarised below and set out in more detail in the following chapters.

The report contains amongst others, as an annex, a revised version of the Exchange on Tax Rulings (ETR) XML Schema and User Guide, designed to support exchanges under the revised BEPS Action 5 transparency framework.

Scope of the transparency framework

The Inclusive Framework agreed several changes that apply to exchanges on future rulings issued  on or after January 1, 2025. The main changes that have been made are:

• a clarification of the purpose of the exchanges on tax rulings;
• a decision to refrain from expanding the scope of the sixth category of rulings until 2028;
• the definition and scope of, and timelines for the exchanges of, past and future rulings;
• a revised template for information exchange with additional, optional and to the extent available, information;
• the use of best practice recommendations for completing the summary section of the template for information exchange;
• the use of the XML Schema and CTS for information transmission, on a best efforts basis; and
• clarifications on the exchange of information expectations under the second step of the two-step process.

Peer review documents

The two key documents that the Inclusive Framework uses for the peer review of the transparency framework are the terms of reference and the methodology for the conduct of the peer review. The Inclusive Framework published these documents for the first time for the peer reviews commencing from 2017. In 2021, these documents were amended to reflect the extension of the BEPS mandate for conducting the peer reviews for the period 2021-2025. In light of the effectiveness review and taking into account a further extension of the BEPS mandate, new terms of reference and methodology for the conduct of the peer review have been agreed.

Terms of reference

The Inclusive Framework has agreed new terms of reference for the peer reviews undertaken from the review year 2025, which are reflected in Chapter 3. The first main change is to the definition and timelines of past and future rulings. Secondly, changes have been made with regards to the exchange of information element. More specifically, the principles governing the “second step” of the exchange which is the exchange upon request of the text of the ruling are now clarified. In addition, the requirement to adopt a “best effort approach” by relying on the XML Schema and the CTS platform, except for jurisdictions with less than ten rulings per year or unless bilaterally agreed otherwise, is now included. Finally, the revised timelines for exchanges on future rulings, to be performed within six months from the issuance of the ruling, are now included.

Methodology for the conduct of the peer review

The Inclusive Framework approved a reduction to the frequency of the peer review of the transparency framework from an annual review to one conducted every three years. It further agreed to provide a more streamlined peer review process for jurisdictions with all elements of the legal and administrative framework for identifying and exchanging rulings in place. In these instances, the three yearly peer review will be based on a simplified questionnaire, focusing on statistical data. This revised approach will take effect as of 2026. Outside of the three-yearly review cycle, an intermediate review of a particular jurisdiction can occur at any moment in time when a reviewed jurisdiction requests so, in order to ensure that progress can be documented swiftly.

The report titled: “Revised BEPS Action 5 Transparency Framework on Tax Rulings” can be downloaded (in a Pdf format) here from the OECD website.

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