A decade ago, many in the Caribbean saw organisations calling for new global tax rules as boogeymen.
These days, hardly a jurisdiction in the region is without a handful of global tax information exchange agreements, and most jurisdictions are grappling with a new difficulty: the administrative challenge of implementing their agreements.
“It is very interesting to see how there has been a turnaround,” said Bermuda Premier and Minister of Finance Paula Cox at the Third Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes meeting held in Bermuda from May 30 to June 1.
Bermuda, which serves as vice chair of the Global Forum Steering Committee, was among the first jurisdictions to undergo the first phase of the forum’s peer review process.
“As member states, we know that you can’t stop the ever encroaching regulatory creep, so what you want to do is from within ensure that you have a voice at the forum, a seat at the table, so that you can try to define the parameters and have some influence on the outcome,” Ms. Cox said.
See the June 16, 2011 edition for full coverage.