The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has underlined Guernsey’s reputation as a “cooperative jurisdiction”.
Guernsey was assessed by the OECD’s global forum on tax transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes as “largely compliant” with the international standards on exchange of information on request—a rating that is shared with the UK, Germany and the US.
At 1 July 2015, Guernsey had 58 Tax Information Exchange Agreements in place (including 22 EU member states and 16 G20 members) and 13 Double Taxation Agreements in place.
Monica Bhatia, head of the Secretariat of the OECD global forum on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes said: "I am very surprised that Guernsey has been included in a list of non-cooperative jurisdictions. We are very pleased with the cooperation Guernsey has shown as a very active member of the global forum.”
“It has demonstrated its commitment to upholding the highest standards of transparency and exchange of information. This is evident through its rating on its peer review and the fact that it has committed to the new global standard on automatic exchange of information as an early adopter."
Guernsey became 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.
This means that the jurisdiction will be able to exchange information for 2016 in 2017, unlike a full EU member state such as Austria.
Pascal Saint-Amans, the OECD’s head of global tax policy, commented: “Guernsey is in the leading group of jurisdictions who are active in the practical implementation of tax transparency and co-operation.”
“Their adherence to the internationally accepted standards developed by the OECD means that there is clear and demonstrable criteria against which the OECD can consider them as a cooperative jurisdiction.”
He continued: “The fact that Guernsey has been peer reviewed as part of the global forum illustrates that other jurisdictions also consider Guernsey transparent and cooperative against those international standards.”
The OECD’s comments come two months after European tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici met with Guernsey’s chief minister.
Moscovici said: “I very much welcome the active engagement of the Channel Islands in the key initiatives involved in the fight against tax evasion, fraud and abusive tax avoidance in which they are important partners of the EU.”
“Their commitment to the adoption of the Common Reporting Standard on automatic exchange of information, alongside the EU member states, is particularly positive.”
