Italy’s ‘white listing’ of Channel Islands important step in attracting European business, says Ogier partner
Ogier partner Marcus Leese has welcomed news from Italy that Guernsey and Jersey are no longer on any Italian ‘black lists’ and will be included on Italy’s ‘white lists’ from early 2016, reports Isle News.
Among other benefits, it is anticipated that this will enable Italian resident investors to invest into Guernsey and Jersey domiciled structures including the many investment funds that are set up in the Channel Islands, which are a centre of excellence for investment funds and their management. With both Guernsey and Jersey having been given a clean bill of health by the European Securities and Marketing Authority for the AIFMD marketing passport into Europe, this is an important step for the islands in being able to attract European business.
Marcus Leese said: “It’s exceptionally pleasing that the huge efforts which Guernsey and Jersey have made over the past two decades or more to implement a world-class regulatory regime for financial services, a robust AML framework and an appropriately balanced regime for the exchange of relevant tax information is now being recognised and major jurisdictions, such as Italy, are appreciating the positive and supportive role that offshore financial centres such as Guernsey and Jersey can play in their own economic development.”
The Guernsey and Jersey authorities had made representations to the Italian authorities on a number of occasions, expressing the view that given the level of cooperation extended on tax information exchange both on request and automatically there was no justification for the islands to have previously been being black listed. On 22 December 2015 the Italian Parliament approved the Stability Law for 2016, which revised the relevant provisions of Italy’s tax code relating to so-called ‘black lists’ on corporate taxation and Controlled Foreign Companies (CFC) rules, and which came into effect on 1 January 2016.
In early 2016, via a Ministerial Decree, Italy’s ‘white lists’ for the purposes of tax treatment of interest from government bonds and listed companies will be updated, taking into account the agreements on exchange of information, compliant with the international standards, that have entered into force. As Guernsey has, like Jersey, a legal instrument in force allowing for the exchange of information with Italy, both Guernsey and Jersey will be included on the ‘white list’.
