Officials from the Caymans government held a press conference last week to quell fears on the Island that its financial industry had been 'sold out' as a result of its recent pact with the US to share tax information.
According to a report from the Caypolitics.com news service, the Deputy Leader of Government Business, George Town, Linford Pierson, Minister for Planning, Communications, Works and Information Technology, Financial Secretary, George McCarthy, and the Attorney General David Ballantyne attended the conference to assure the public that the agreement will not lead to an 'open season' on the finance industry and 'it does not mean that the books and records of the Cayman Islands will be thrown open.'
Indeed, they assured that the new tax pact would 'provide comfort to the financial industry and it is significant that the agreement is not an automatic and spontaneous process [as] it does not have immediate effect.' Mr Ballantyne confirmed that it could take up to two years to implement the relevant laws to make the Tax Information Exchange Agreement workable and the first stage of the agreement does not come into effect until 1 January, 2004.
He explained that a request for tax information from the US government had to be formally made to the relevant Tax Authority, and it must be backed-up by satisfactory evidence to convince the Cayman Authority that it is not a 'fishing expedition'.
It was also confirmed that the US will only seek out 'tax evasion willfully done with a dishonest attempt' and the sum of money involved 'must be a significant or substantial amount.' Mr McCarthy added that the pact was entered into in 'the spirit of transparency [and] no country can, with validity, close their doors to transactions or entities operating from the Cayman Islands.'
.
Network Tweets
Network BlogsContent
provided by
|
Archive | Resources | Partners | Site Map | Links | Newsletter Archive | Contact | RSS Feeds | About | Syndication | Advertising & Marketing | Recruitment | Terms & Conditions | Privacy & Cookies
Copyright © 2012 - All Rights Reserved - Tax-News.com
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Tax-News.com has taken reasonable care in sourcing and presenting the information contained on this site, but accepts no responsibility for any financial or other loss or damage that may result from its use. In particular, users of the site are advised to take appropriate professional advice before committing themselves to involvement in offshore jurisdictions, offshore trusts or offshore investments.
Write a comment