Indicators published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development portrayed Malta as a tax compliant jurisdiction, the Finance Minister said.

This, he added, was what the government had been stating all along in the face of unfair criticism by uninformed or malicious quarters.

"While we intend to continue to be one of the competitive choices in the Mediterranean for investors, we are resolute to keep to the best international standards on taxation matters,” Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said.

He was reacting to the 2017 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) International Tax Cooperation Report.

The OECD recently introduced a new interactive tax map, which provides information on the results of peer reviews of over 140 countries on how they are addressing issues related to tax transparency and Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.

OECD’s assessment is based on three main pillars, whereby it looks at the jurisdiction’s co-operation when it comes to exchange of information on request (EOIR), automatic exchange of information (AEOI) and the BEPS initiative outcomes.

With regards to Malta, the OECD indicators show the absence of harmful tax practices in relation to BEPS, as well as a strong commitment in relation to tax cooperation in general.

For AEOI, Malta has commenced exchanging information in line with the common reporting standard and has an activated information exchange network in relation to country by country reporting for multinational enterprises.

Malta was ranked as being largely compliant when it came to the EOIR.

The OECD assesses tax regimes in relation to intellectual property rights, financing and leasing, banking and insurance, distribution and service centres, shipping, holding companies and fund management regimes.

This assessment showed there were no “harmful features” in Malta for the purpose of base erosion and profit shifting.

“The OECD report clearly shows that Malta has been upholding the international agreed standards and providing the necessary exchange of information for investigations when it comes to tax related issues”, the minister said.