J5 tax crime chiefs hold summit and commit to further international actions

LONDON — A ground-breaking alliance dedicated to tackling global financial crime must continue its efforts to defeat tax cheats and frauds, the United Kingdom’s (UK) Financial Secretary to the Treasury told an enforcement summit this week.

The heads of tax enforcement from the UK, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States (US) came together in London for the latest Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) summit to share intelligence and coordinate efforts against international tax crime and money laundering.

“Tax fraud is a perennial and persistent threat to all our nations. Unity, transparency and collaboration will be essential if we’re to tackle it, said Lucy Frazer, UK Financial Secretary to the Treasury. “Put simply, tax cheats flourish when we fail to work together. Every scrap of information left behind by fraudsters — in any one of our jurisdictions — is a potential lead in the fight against global tax crime. By joining forces, we undermine the global criminal community in ways we could not do alone.”

The London summit, hosted by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), marked four years since the J5 group was established and renewed commitments to build on recent operational successes to find innovative solutions to some of the most complicated tax crime matters facing all five countries.

The week-long summit began with the fourth iteration of the J5 Challenge, which brings together investigators, subject matter experts, data scientists and others to analyse a range of data and intelligence and produce real leads for each country to investigate. This year’s Challenge focused on nonfungible tokens and decentralised exchanges.

The summit also included the inaugural Global Financial Institution Summit (GFIS) – the start of ambitious talks between the J5 and some of the world’s biggest banks on what more can be done to tackle tax crime together.

This was followed by a public-private partnership event where leaders from both sectors came together to examine key threats to the international tax system. The summit culminated in a Chief’s meeting where the partners discussed emerging threats and agreed on new operational priorities and targets.

“I am absolutely delighted to have been asked to host this J5 International Tax Enforcement Summit, the first face-to-face meeting in over two years, and first meeting of our J5 Public Private Partnership,” said Simon York, Chief and Director of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service. “This is a big moment for the J5 and a key step forward in realising our aim of becoming the international voice of tax enforcement. We’ve done fantastically well to work virtually over the last two years but getting together has enabled us to significantly strengthen our relationships and plan the next phase of this ground-breaking alliance.”

At the conclusion of the meeting, each Chief signed on to a Communique (linked) that reaffirmed their commitment to the organization and summarized the progress made throughout the week.

“This week has been highly productive and has highlighted the commitment working with a public- private partnership model. Working together to tackle professional enablers of tax evasion and crime, and associated money laundering, we aim to enhance our systems to better detect and disrupt criminal networks,” said Brett Martin, Assistant Commissioner, Australian Taxation Office, and Australian Deputy Chief of the J5. “Information sharing across the J5, enhanced with stronger relationships with financial institutions places us at the forefront of disrupting criminal networks that target our public finances, especially when it comes to tackling professional enablers of crime.”

“Our message is clear: The J5 will not tolerate cross border tax evasion. The work accomplished this week will go a long way towards expanding our reach of tax enforcement,” said Eric Ferron, Director General, Criminal Investigations, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

“Although investigating crimes associated with decentralized finance and NFTs may sound challenging, it is essential to acknowledge the importance of these innovations and to address this topic in the future,” said Niels Obbink, Chief and General Director, Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD).

“It clearly feels like we have turned a corner with this gathering of the J5 in London this week. We have gone from an organization trying to find our footing and our voice to an organization that is poised to have some of the biggest enforcement announcements this year,” said Jim Lee, Chief, IRS Criminal Investigation. “We are working with the biggest banks, establishing partnerships in public and private industries, and putting criminals in jail — it is no longer conceptual, it is reality.”

J5 works together to gather information, share intelligence and conduct coordinated operations against transnational financial crimes. The J5 includes the Australian Taxation Office, the Canada Revenue Agency, the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs from the UK and IRS Criminal Investigation from the US.

For more information about the J5, please visit www.irs.gov/j5.

JUSTIN COLE [email protected] 202-768-2110