Guernsey has expressed its surprise at being included on a list of ‘non-cooperative’ non-EU jurisdictions published by the EU commission.
The list consolidates national tax ‘blacklists’ as they stood six months ago, and includes any jurisdiction on 10 or more member states’ lists. Although Guernsey is only on nine, it is included because Sark appears on another ‘blacklist’.
Guernsey’s chief minister, deputy Jonathan Le Tocq, commented: “The commission appears to have hurriedly put together a list of so-called ‘non-cooperative’ non-EU jurisdictions using some very arbitrary criteria.”
“It is this type of arbitrary and inconsistent use of ‘blacklists’ that international standards are supposed to be replacing, so this seems to me to run counter to what the commission itself is trying to do on tax transparency. It also runs counter to commissioner Moscovici’s own positive views on Guernsey, which we discussed just over a month ago.”
Le Tocq continued: “I have written to commissioner Moscovici today to express Guernsey’s disappointment and surprise that we are on this list, and to ask him to have Guernsey removed from it as soon as possible.”
Commerce and employment minister, Kevin Stewart, said: “This list is very odd indeed. We informed the commission that we are on nine lists rather than 11, which was confirmed by the Latvian and Polish governments, but the commission chose not to take that into account.”
The factors which led to Guernsey appearing on the list include voluntarily adoption of the EU Savings Directive and moving to automatic exchange of information from 2011. This means that information relating to accounts held in Guernsey by individuals resident in an EU member state is now automatically sent to their home jurisdiction each year.
Another factor was voluntarily adhering to the principles of the Code of Conduct on Business Taxation, which has been formally endorsed by the Code Group.
Being part of the Early Adopter Group of the Common Reporting Standard on automatic exchange of information, after signing the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement in October 2014, was also cited.
Finally, the commission highlighted that, as of 1 May 2015, Guernsey had 57 Tax Information Exchange Agreements in place (including 21 EU member states and 16 G20 members) as well as 13 Double Taxation Agreements.
