Information Exchange Agreement

Cayman Islands Signs Information Exchange Agreement: The UK and Cayman Islands have signed a new agreement by which they have agreed in the exchange of information for tax matters and bank account holders of the two countries. Transparency thus will from now on be the major issue between them. The first week of November 2013, the UK signed an automatic tax information sharing agreement with the Cayman Islands.

The Cayman Islands are the first Overseas Territory to officially sign this agreement with the United Kingdom.

Financial information concerning taxpayers of the UK with bank accounts in the Cayman Islands, they will be automatically given to HM Revenue & Customs, which is considered to be a significant step closer to the new worldwide status quo and which is scheduled to be agreed at the beginning of the following year.

This procedure is believed to be able to ensure that the sum of tax being paid by the persons, companies etc it is also the right one and it is also believed that it will boost HMRC’s capacity to secure tax evasion.

The Cayman Islands will join the UK, Italy, Germany and Spain in automatically exchanging information regarding bank accounts opened and operated by taxpayers from their jurisdictions, which is the pilot for the G5 multi-lateral information sharing. It is also worth mentioning that 31 jurisdictions have joined this initiative.

The UK considers itself to be the pioneer in creating a new worldwide status quo regarding tax transparency and automatic tax information sharing. According to George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, these agreements are believed to be helpful to them in order to spot those individuals who are trying to hide their assets offshore. George Osborne continues that it is fair for people to pay the tax they owe and if they try to evade tax, we will come after you.

During its chairmanship in the year 2013, the United Kingdom made sure that one of the main subjects of the G8’s agenda was the tax and transparency. Based on this the leaders of G8 during the summit in July 2013 made an agreement to synchronize their efforts to fight tax evasion and avoidance. This project has been taken on by the OECD.