Policy paper

The J5 - Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement

Published 1 March 2023

© Crown copyright 2023

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Background

HMRC is one of five international partner organisations that form the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement, also known as ‘the J5’. The group brings together tax fraud enforcement organisations from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

The purpose of the J5 is to work collaboratively to better address international and transnational tax crime and money laundering.

The group shares intelligence and expertise, working together on joint operational activity to tackle those who profit from enabling and perpetrating tax crime.

The J5 was formed in 2018 following a recommendation from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for countries to do more to tackle the enablers of tax crime.

J5 logo

The work of the J5

The current focus of the J5 is targeting tax and other financial crimes involving:

  • professional enablers
  • cybercrime including illicit use of cryptocurrency

It does this by:

  • gathering and sharing information and intelligence
  • conducting joint operations
  • building capacity and expertise of tax enforcement officials
  • engaging with the private sector

Professional enablers

The work of the J5 to tackle enablers is focussed on identifying and disrupting those who enable and facilitate offshore tax crime and associated money laundering.

The J5 jointly target high-risk individuals and entities using criminal investigation, proceeds of crime action, regulatory, administrative and intelligence activities delivered through J5 countries’ law enforcement and regulatory agencies.

Cybercrime

The J5 works to address a range of tax fraud and money laundering risks associated with cybercrime and cryptocurrency. This includes the use of cryptocurrency to circumvent sanctions, hide assets and as an element of investment frauds and ponzi schemes.

The J5 runs a series of ‘Crypto Challenges’ bringing together investigators, subject experts, data scientists and others from the J5 counties to analyse a range of data and intelligence to identify tax evasion.

Public Private Partnerships

The J5 Public Private Partnership Group is chaired and led by HMRC.

The aims of the group are to utilise public-private partnership between tax authorities, wider government and the private sector to develop a fuller appreciation of emerging tax threats and create joined-up strategies to address tax crime and wider illicit finance and economic crime threats.

The J5 also hosts a summit on tax fraud with key global financial institutions. These events allow the J5 organisations, global banks, think tanks and partners such as the OECD to come together and discuss key risks and issues.

Find out more about J5 operations

You can read more information on our collaboration with J5 operations on IRS.GOV.

Our J5 Partners

HMRC’s partner organisations in the J5 are:

Follow the J5 on LinkedIn

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