Government responds to DC tax haven list
Ministry of Finance officials say they are “monitoring developments” in Washington after the District of Columbia included Bermuda on a list of tax havens.
The Island was one of 39 jurisdictions named on the list in changes to the municipality’s Budget Support Act. The changes will first have to be reviewed by the US Congress before becoming law.
Finance minister Bob Richards said Bermuda was “fully co-operative through tax information exchange agreements”.
He added: “The United Nations and the World Trade Organisation consider domestic taxation laws to be the sovereign right of nations and jurisdictions, regardless of whether they are based on consumption or income.
“Bermuda has had a tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) with the United States since the USA-Bermuda Tax Convention Act 1986. It’s our oldest TIEA and possibly one of the world’s first such agreements.”
Mr Richards added: “When I signed the USA/Bermuda Fatca agreement in the Bermuda Senate Chamber in December 2013, the then US Consul-General to Bermuda, Robert Settje, responded to a journalist that the US Government did not consider Bermuda to be a tax haven.”
