TCI Minister rejects tax haven accusation
The Turks and Caicos Islands is compliant with the Global Forum’s standards on exchange of tax information said its Minister of Finance today, Thursday, 25 June 2015.
The Honourable Washington Misick was responding to a European Commission (EC) document that appeared to list 30 territories across the world that it considers tax havens.
“The Turks and Caicos was commended by the Global Forum for the tremendous progress that we have made in improving international tax transparency,” said Misick. “The Global Forum considers the TCI as ‘co-operative’.
“Indeed, following the UK’s G8 Presidency, we were early adopters of the automatic exchange of tax information, committing to share information with our partners by 2017.
“I assure the international community that we remain committed to and actively involved in achieving these ideals.”
Despite the EC’s claims, the Global Forum believes that countries identified are either fully or largely compliant, and have committed to Automatic Exchange of Information, sometimes even as early adopters, such as the TCI.
This EC list was published on 17 June 2015 and includes the Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI).
Misick also noted that the EC list appears to deal only with corporate tax and does not contain any lists from larger EU jurisdictions like Germany, France or the United Kingdom.
The TCI will now work with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Global Forum and its sister Territories to express collective concern to the EC.
