UK and International Tax news
Further UK Action To Combat Tax Evasion
Monday 20th May 2013
HM Treasury has recently announced that all of the British overseas territories with significant financial centres have signed up to the Government’s strategy on global tax transparency. These include the Cayman Islands, Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Gibraltar, which already operates the relevant transparency directives as part of the EU, has also made the same commitments.
The agreements mean that the HMRC will be automatically provided with much greater levels of information about bank accounts held by taxpayers in these jurisdictions, including names, addresses, dates of birth, account numbers, account balances and details of payments made into those accounts. It will also include information on certain accounts held by entities such as trusts.
The British overseas territories have also agreed to pilot the automatic exchange of information bilaterally with the UK and multilaterally with the G5 [the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain].
Whilst Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man agreed to greater automatic information exchange with the UK in February and March 2013, the Isle of Man has also agreed to join pilot on multilateral exchange. Guernsey has expressed a strong interest in engaging with the pilot.
These jurisdictions have, as well as this, committed to taking action to ensure they are at the forefront of transparency on company ownership.
The UK Government is working closely with them ahead of the UK’s presidency of the G8.
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