The Cayman Islands now has ten bilateral tax information exchange agreements in place following a signing ceremony today in Berlin, where Leader of Government Business McKeeva Bush signed a deal which had been negotiated with the Republic of Ireland. This means that Cayman is now only two short of the twelve agreements required by the OECD to move it to the post G20 ‘white list'. According to today’s OECD progress report, Cayman remains on the 'grey list' of countries considered not to be fully co-operative.
Bush said he was pleased to sign the agreement with Ireland as it marked another important step towards the country’s commitment to international cooperation and OECD standards for transparency and exchange of information on tax matters. “This signing will commemorate the beginning of what I am sure will be a highly productive and mutually rewarding relationship between the Cayman Islands and Ireland,” Bush added.
He said that the newly formed ‘Negotiation Team’ had worked tirelessly to secure technical agreements quickly. “Our signing last week of a Double Taxation Agreement with the UK together with today’s signing is a direct result of their commitment and hard work. We look forward to continuing these efforts and I am confident that we will be on the OECD’s white list very soon.”
The deal with Ireland is as a result of negotia tions begun in the last few weeks by the new government's team and forms part of a list of potential other bilateral agreements with a number of OECD countries. Some negotiations were started under the previous adminsration in the wake of deals signed under the unilateral mechanism, which was not accepted by the OECD as fully compliant with its standards.
Signing on behalf of the Irish Government, Martin Mansergh, Minister of State at the Irish Department of Finance, said the TIEA was concrete evidence of the significant progress that has been made in recent months. “Ireland welcomes the commitment of the Cayman Islands to implement the OECD standards of transparency and exchange of information in tax matters and their willingness to enter into tax information exchange agreements,” he noted. “The signing of this agreement represents a new chapter in relations between Ireland and the Cayman Islands.”
Mansergh told the Irish press that the agreement would allow Ireland's Revenue Commissioners to request information which is relevant to an Irish tax investigation directly from the authorities in the Cayman Islands. "Information that would typically be relevant is bank account information and beneficial ownership information for companies and other entities established in the Cayman Islands,” he added.
The Cayman Islands now has bilateral tax information agreements with the United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. The jurisdiction also has complimentary agreements with Germany, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Slovak Republic and Switzerland under the Tax Information Authority Law passed late last year.
It is understood that the technical committee of the OECD had originally sanctioned the unilateral mechanism, but at some point before the G20 meeting where the white and grey lists were drawn up decided it would have to give further consideration to that particular method of signing agreements. The OECD did state in the notes that when the so-called lists were first published that it had acknowledged the use of this mechanism to consider revising Cayman’s position from the list.
However, since then Bermuda has been moved and in today’s progress report Cayman is still on the 'grey list', with the same note still in place but making it clear that the jurisdiction will have to continue on towards the goal of 12 bilateral deals. Bush said last week that he is aiming to sign agreements with all OECD countries but will have the all-important twelve by September.
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