Guernsey removed from Italian tax blacklist
The Italian Ministry of Finance has removed Guernsey from its revised tax blacklist.
Amendments within the 2015 Finance Act mean that the anti-tax haven deduction blacklist has been revised to exclude all countries that have an adequate exchange of information with Italy.
Sinéad Leddy, Head of Technical at Guernsey Finance, said: “This is welcome news for the practitioners within our finance industry… The only disappointment is that it has taken so long for Italy to overcome some outdated prejudices and recognise the high standards of tax information exchange applied in Guernsey.”
Guernsey was among the first set of jurisdictions placed on the OECD ‘white list’ for exchange of information standards in 2009. A Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with Italy was signed in September 2012, at the same time as the island’s tax regime was reviewed and given a clean bill of health by the EU.
“I’m pleased [our ongoing commitment to meeting leading global standards for tax information exchange] has now been recognised by the Italian tax authorities and we look forward to other jurisdictions following suit,” Leddy said.
