We first posted UK mini-FATCA Agreements Spells The End for UK Tax Haven
Territories!, on Monday, November 26, 2012, where we discussed that the UK government
is about to reveal legislation imposing automatic client disclosure provisions
on financial institutions in the Crown Dependencies and British Overseas
Territories. 
The draft, described as a UK version of the US Foreign Account Tax
Compliance Act (FATCA), is said to mandate the automatic reporting of financial
and beneficial ownership information for each account of each offshore
financial institution to the UK's HM Revenue and Customs.
The draft agreement requires the automatic exchange of information for each reportable account of each reporting financial institution. That will include full details of all beneficial owners of the account, including those whose identities might otherwise be hidden by trusts or companies
It will also requires the account number, name and identifying number of the reporting financial institution as provided when registering with the IRS for FATCA purposes, and the account balance or value as of the end of the relevant calendar year or other appropriate reporting period or, if the account was closed during such year, immediately before closure.
It will also requires the account number, name and identifying number of the reporting financial institution as provided when registering with the IRS for FATCA purposes, and the account balance or value as of the end of the relevant calendar year or other appropriate reporting period or, if the account was closed during such year, immediately before closure.
Subsequently, the UK Prime Minister David Cameron has written an open letter to leaders of
the Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories, urging them to ‘work in
partnership with the UK’ on stringent measures to establish beneficial
ownership of companies.
The
letter was sent to the heads of government of Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of
Man, Gibraltar, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the
Turks and Caicos Islands, Anguilla and Montserrat. It asks them to set up
'fully resourced and properly managed' centralized registries that will allow
law enforcement and tax collectors to obtain 'full and accurate details' of
ownership and control of all companies.
Cameron's
letter sets the offshore jurisdictions a nominal deadline of 17 June, the date
of the next G8 leaders' summit to be hosted by the UK. High on the UK’s agenda
will be a drive to 'knock down the walls of company secrecy,' he says.
The
chief ministers of Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar have written
to the UK Prime Minister David Cameron offering to join the OECD's Multilateral
Convention on Mutual Assistance in Tax Matters.
They
also agreed to attend a meeting in London at which the UK will press its
dependencies to agree to full automatic exchange of tax information. The UK
government is currently pressing its dependencies to agree to fully automatic
exchange of tax information. It is hosting a meeting in London on 15 June to
discuss the terms, and the chief ministers of the four jurisdictions have
agreed to attend.
Their
offer to sign the less stringent OECD convention may be intended to show their
commitment to tax transparency, while stopping short of accepting the automatic
reporting of banking transactions to HM Revenue and Customs.
Letters
from the jurisdictions' chief ministers to David Cameron stressed the
importance of ‘a global standard of tax transparency to provide a level playing
field for countries across the world’. All are anxious that Britain's Crown
Dependencies and Overseas Territories are not singled out for especially
stringent treatment.
The
four ministers also offered to cooperate with proposals for stricter
identification of corporate beneficial ownership, although they say they have
adequate measures in place.
Want to get right with the
IRS?
Contact the Tax
Lawyers at
Marini & Associates,
P.A.
).
Sources
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