French blacklist
The French government has removed Bermuda and Jersey from its “blacklist” of jurisdictions that it deems uncooperative on tax information sharing, but the Virgin Islands remains on the list, a news organisation has reported. Breaking away from international regulatory groups, France has frequently acted unilaterally to sanction jurisdictions it labels as “tax havens.” In September it added the VI, Jersey and Bermuda to its blacklist, which imposed a 75 percent withholding tax on financial flows to those jurisdictions from French citizens and companies. But according to the news organisation Global Post, French officials said this month that Jersey and Bermuda have since increased compliance. “The administration asks a certain number of territories deemed uncooperative to show a certain amount of progress,” French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said on French radio. “We have had these discussions with Jersey and other islands. Some have not met our criteria, but these two territories have.” The two jurisdictions were removed from the blacklist on Jan. 1, weeks after the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes rated them as largely compliant, according to the Global Post. In an assessment of 50 jurisdictions, the same organisation rated the VI and three others as “non-compliant,” a rating officials here have denounced as flawed because the tax-information-sharing regime has since been updated.
Law firm
The law firm GRR Gordon and Co., headed by former senior magistrate Valerie Gordon, established its offices this month. A formal opening ceremony was held on Jan. 6 at its offices in the BF Commercial Building in Road Town.
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