01609nam a22001337a 4500 World Customs Organisation Guidelines for Strengthening Cooperation and the Exchanging of Information between Customs and Tax Authorities at the National Level Belgium World Customs Organisation 2016 16p. The WCO guidelines intend to supplement the ongoing initiatives, overarching principles for cooperation which take account of operational considerations, bearing in mind the different organizational structures and national requirements of countries. The Guidelines endeavour to provide guidance and ideas to customs and tax authorities for formalizing the contacts and strengthening the existing cooperation at the national level. This is in light of rapid globalization of the trade and the financial systems, positive developments that have also increased the potential risk of customs offences, tax evasion, and tax avoidance, and have put customs and tax administrations under greater pressure in their risk assessment, compliance management and trade facilitation efforts. While traditional customs fraud and evasion of customs duties continue to pose challenges to customs administrations, there have been increasing concerns regarding offshore tax evasion, where funds are being deposited and sheltered from the home tax authorities, having potential connections with illicit financial flows, money laundering and terrorist Taxation, Customs iffoadatabase.trustafrica.org/iff/Customs_Tax_Guidelines_EN.ashx.pdf CF 868 868