Economic and financial section > Double taxation and tax evasion

Geneva, February 7th, 1925.
PRELIMINARY NOTE
On October 17th, 1922, the Secretary-General of the League of Nations, in accordance
with a proposal which was made by the Financial Committee and approved by the Council,
requested a number of European countries to state whether they would be prepared to nominate
a technical official to sit on a Committee formed to study the questions of double taxation and
tax evasion. The Financial Committee considered that “in order to arrive at any real solution
of these two important questions, it was essential to obtain the opinion of the representatives
of certain Governments. Still better results might be anticipated if a meeting of these repre¬
sentatives were convened in order to discuss the possibility of an agreement to enable common
action to be taken upon certain points, and to permit the drawing up of schemes, bilateral
agreements and other arrangements concerning double taxation and the evasion of taxation”.
The Governments thus consulted agreed and nominated the following official experts:
Belgium:
Czechoslovakia:
France:
Great Britain:
Italy:
Netherlands:
Switzerland:
M. Clavier, Director-General of Direct Taxation.
Dr. Valnicek, Head of Department at the Ministry of Finance.
M. Baudouin-Bugnet, Director-General of Direct Taxation.
Sir Percy Thompson, K.B.E., C.B., Deputy-Chairman of the Board
of Inland Revenue.
Prof. Pasquale d’Aroma, Director-General of Direct Taxation.
Dr. Sinninghe Damste, Director-General of Direct Taxation, Customs
and Excise.
M. Blau, Director of the Federal Taxation Department.
After the third session, the British member, Sir Percy Thompson, was appointed to sit
upon a commission in India, and his place was taken by Mr. G. B. Canny, C.B., of the Board
of Inland Revenue. M. Baudouin-Bugnet, the French member, having been appointed one
of the “Presidents de Chambre” at the Audit Office, was replaced by M. Borduge, his successor
as Director-General of Direct Taxation.
As their official duties made it impossible for them to be absent from their country for any
length of time, the experts met on five occasions, at Geneva:
First Session:
Second Session:
Third Session:
Fourth Session:
Fifth Session:
June qth-qth, 1923.
October 8th-i3th, 1923.
March 3ist-April 7th, 1924.
October 20th-27th, 1924.
February 2nd-7th, 1925.
They elected as their Chairman, for the entire work of the Committee, Dr. Pasquale d’Aroma,
the Italian representative. M. Leon-Dufour, Secretary of the Financial Committee of the
League of Nations, acted as Secretary.