Peter Harwood, Guernsey’s Chief Minister, wrote to David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, to support the move by Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK, which was announced on April 9 and which will be modelled on the intergovernmental agreements established to implement the American Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
“Guernsey firmly believes that common global standards are the most effective method of fighting fraud and tax evasion,” he wrote. “Guernsey was on the original OECD white list and we have a clear policy objective to meet international standards on tax transparency.”
Harwood added that Guernsey was committed to meeting all international standards on beneficial ownership, including transparency of and access to such information.
George Osborne, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced in March that the Treasury hoped to recover £1 billion ($1.5 billion) as a result of new tax reporting measures, including automatic exchange of information, it had agreed with its Crown Dependencies – the Isle of Man and Jersey, as well as Guernsey.
