On April 6th-7th Senator Nick Sherry, Assistant Treasurer of Australia, announced the signing of TIEA agreements with The Cayman Islands, The Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Monaco, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. With the signing ceremonies complete, the TIEAs will be implemented upon the completion of legal ratification by both signatories. The new agreements raise Australia’s TIEA total to 22.

Explaining Australia’s pursuit to expand its TIEA network, Nick Sherry said, “As Chair of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information, Australia is playing a leading role in the international effort to combat harmful tax competition.” Australia is currently participating in peer-review process sanctioned by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which is aimed at gauging the progress and effectiveness of international efforts to implement previously signed TIEAs.

The documents for all of Australia’s TIEA agreements can be found on the Australian Treasury website.

Photo by Pascal Vuylsteker

In a report released on March 19th, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) revealed that worldwide private non-resident deposits held in secrecy jurisdictions has escalated to approximately USD 10 trillion. The GFI’s Privately Held, Non-Resident Deposits in Secrecy Jurisdictions report analyzed raw data from the Bank Of International Settlements (BIS) (an international organisation fostering international monetary and financial cooperation, and serving as a bank for central banks), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and central banks of offshore jurisdictions to find that offshore deposits into secrecy jurisdictions have been growing at an average rate of 9 percent per annum, since the early 90s. The rise in deposits has consistently outpaced the average annual world GDP growth rate of 3.9 percent during the same period, signaling increased illicit financial flows and levels of tax evasion throughout the world.

The report examined private offshore deposits coming into 73 nations regarded as secrecy jurisdictions by the Tax Justice Network (TJN). It was found that the US topped the list with USD 2.18 trillion of deposits, followed by the Cayman Islands at USD 1.55 trillion, and the UK at USD 1.53. The top 10 most list of deposit takers also included Luxembourg, Germany, Jersey, Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland and Hong Kong, with a combined total of USD 2.38 trillion.

Through the report, the GFI issued key recommendations for the BIS and governments worldwide, amongst which were the need for increased transparency in offshore financial markets, a call to the BIS to provide country of origin information in its private non-resident deposit data and cease aggregating privately and publically held fund deposit data. Commenting on the sparsity of available data, the report mentioned the current global efforts to increase international tax transparency and said, “Policy makers and researchers alike will require considerably enhanced data collection and reporting in order to effectively regulate offshore banking in the immediate years ahead”.

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On March 18th the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) announced the initiation of the first step in the most extensive and through international tax transparency assesment process that has ever been undertaken. Eighteen nations from the 91 participating members of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information will soon undergo extensive analysis to determine the adequacy of their efforts to implement internationally agreed upon taxation standards, such as the effectiveness of the bilateral Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA) which were signed by all participating jurisdictions. The first set assessment results are expected to be published before the next Global Forum meeting to be held in Singapore in September 2010. The eighteen reviewed nations will consist of Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Botswana, Canada, Cayman Islands, Denmark, Germany, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Jersey, Mauritius, Monaco, Norway, Panama, Qatar and Trinidad & Tobago.

The peer-reviews come as a response to calls raised by G20 leaders at their Pittsburgh Summit in September 2009 for greater tax transparency and a “robust peer review mechanism” to ensure the rapid, timely and appropriate implementation of the OECD standard on information exchange. Mike Rawson, Chair of the Global Forum, commented on the upcoming reviews, saying: “…this is the most comprehensive, in-depth review on international tax co-operation ever…The peer review process will identify jurisdictions that are not implementing the standards. These will be provided with guidance on the changes required and a deadline to report back on the improvements they have made.”

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In the face of a KYD40.8 million fall in revenues and a KYD56.2 million escalations in expenditure, the Cayman Islands government had sought assistance in the form of loans. Permission to increase the British jurisdiction’s debt balance was denied by the British government. It was requested that the Cayman Islands increase their tax base or levels to ensure that it does not post a budget deficit in the following fiscal year. With the new budget, permission has been given for the Cayman Islands to pursue and accept rescue loans.

It is estimated by the Cayman Islands government that the new revenue measures will garner KYD94.9 million in the 2009/10 fiscal year and KYD126.4 when they have been in effect for a full twelve months. The most prominent changes implemented include raising annual company fees for resident, non-resident, exempt and foreign companies by KYD150 – KYD500. Even with a subsequent reduction in companies, the government still estimates that an additional KYD17.0 million will be collected. License fees for Mutual Funds are set to increase by KYD500, garnering KYD4.4 million. The full list of changes and their revenue estimates can be found at the Cayman Islands government website.

The London G20 Summit, held on the 2nd of April this year, heralded an unprecedented wave of Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA). In what was described as “revolutionary” by Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General, the number of completed TIEAs has almost doubled since their inception in late 2000.
Since the G20 summit, and subsequent global push for greater tax transparency and compliance, the following 53 agreements have been signed.

United States – Monaco (8 September 2009)
Denmark – Turks & Caicos Islands (7 September 2009)
Netherlands – Antigua & Barbuda (2 September 2009)
Denmark – Gibraltar (2 September 2009)
Denmark – Anguilla (2 September 2009)
Germany – Liechtenstein (2 September 2009)
Netherlands – St Vincent & the Grenadines (1 September 2009)
Denmark – St Vincent & Grenadines (1 September 2009)
Denmark – St Kitts & Nevis (1 September 2009)
Netherlands – St Kitts & Nevis (1 September 2009)
Canada – Netherlands Antilles (29 August 2009)
United Kingdom – Gibraltar (27 August 2009)
Australia – Gibraltar (25 August 2009)
New Zealand – British Virgin Islands (14 August 2009)
New Zealand – Cayman Islands (14 August 2009)
New Zealand – Gibraltar (13 August 2009)
Germany – Gibraltar (13 August 2009)
United Kingdom – Liechtenstein (11 August 2009)
Monaco – San Marino (29 July 2009)
Bermuda – Ireland (28 July 2009)
New Zealand – Isle of Man (27 July 2009)
New Zealand – Jersey (27 July 2009)
United Kingdom – Turks & Caicos (23 July 2009)
Netherlands – Turks & Caicos (22 July 2009)
Netherlands – Anguilla (22 July 2009)
Ireland – Turks & Caicos (22 July 2009)
Ireland – Anguilla (22 July 2009)
New Zealand – Guernsey (21 July 2009)
UK – Anguilla (20 July 2009)
Belgium – Monaco (15 July 2009)
New Zealand – Cook Islands (9 July 2009)
Netherlands – Cayman Islands (8 July 2009)
Germany – Bermuda (3 July 2009)
Ireland – Gibraltar (24 June 2009)
Ireland – Cayman Islands (23 June 2009)
France – British Virgin Islands (17 June 09)
Australia – Jersey (10 June 2009)
The Netherlands – Bermuda (8 June 2009)
Denmark – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
Faroes – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
Finland – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
Greenland – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
Iceland – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
Norway – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
Sweden – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
New Zealand – Bermuda (17 April 2009)
Denmark – Bermuda (16 April 2009)
Faroes – Bermuda (16 April 2009)
Finland – Bermuda (16 April 2009)
Greenland – Bermuda (16 April 2009)
Iceland – Bermuda (16 April 2009)
Norway – Bermuda (16 April 2009)
Sweden – Bermuda (16 April 2009)

Previous to these, 63 agreements had been signed, bringing the total at the 10th of September to 116.