Pascal Saint-Amans, Director, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD

Bio

A French national, Saint-Amans graduated from the National School of Administration (ENA) in 1996 and spent almost ten years as an official in the French Ministry for Finance. He held various roles in the Treasury, including leading the supervision of the EU work on direct taxes and head of tax treaty negotiations.

In this capacity, he participated in the OECD Working Party No.1 of the Committee on Fiscal Affairs as the delegate for France. He was then elected Chair of WP1 in 2005 and was a member of the UN Group of Experts on International Co-operation in Tax Matters, becoming a “rapporteur” in 2006. Before he left the government, he was Deputy Director in charge of litigation at the Direction Générale des Impôts.

Then, in September 2007, Saint-Amans joined the OECD as Head of the International Co-operation and Tax Competition Division in the CTPA. He played a crucial part in the advancement of the OECD tax transparency agenda in the context of the G20. In October 2009, he was then appointed Head of the Global Forum Division, created to service the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. The programme has the participation of over 100 countries.

Saint-Amans took on his current duties as Director of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration at the OECD on 1 February 2012.

Between 1999 and 2002, he also served as Financial director of the Energy Regulation Committee and was responsible for the introduction of new electricity tariffs.

Why did he make the power list?

Saint-Amans is number 46 on the financial power list 2018. At the helm of the OECD’s tax policy initiatives since 2012, Saint-Amans has made great strides towards strengthening international tax transparency and ensuring that jurisdictions align tax policies on tax evasion and administration in recent years. Yet tax issues continue to emerge on the international stage, with the Paradise Papers the latest scandal to hit the international tax community. 2018 will see a new wave of over 50 countries begin to exchange Common Reporting Standard information to a bid to tackle tax evasion, but will the OECD’s strategies put an end to the potential for another Papers leak this year?

Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD

The Centre for Tax Policy and Administration is part of the Secretariat of the OECD. Its initiatives have included a base erosion and profit sharing project, guidance on fiscal federalism, criticism of transparency of tax havens like Monaco and Panama, and the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.

Put simply, the mission of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people worldwide. The OECD is therefore a forum which governments can use to work together to share experiences and seek solutions to common problems.

See who else has made the Financial Power List 2018 and compare this to the Financial Power List 2016.