The three UK Crown Dependencies all signed the IGAs at the US Embassy in London, having agreed earlier this year to comply with the FATCA law.
All three jurisdictions have also signed similar agreements with the UK, with Jersey and Guernsey signing in October and the Isle of Man becoming the first of the three to do so a couple of weeks beforehand.
Jersey chief minister senator Ian Gorst, who signed the agreement with US ambassador to the UK, Matthew Barzun, said: “The signing of this agreement is further evidence of Jersey’s full commitment to the fight against tax evasion, and of our support of current international initiatives enhancing transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes.
“The OECD, at the request of the G20, is developing a single global standard for automatic exchange of information based on the US FATCA model and Jersey is also actively engaged in this process.”
Meanwhile, Guernsey’s chief minister, Peter Harwood, said: “Guernsey has been committed to exchanging tax information since it signed its first tax information exchange agreement with the US authorities in 2002. Today we have enhanced those arrangements, and in doing so we have further enhanced our reputation and our leadership position on tax transparency.”
Before these three, the US had signed 12 other IGAs including with a number of European countries, including the UK, as well as the Cayman Islands and Costa Rica.
A Bill which brought FATCA about was signed in March 2010. At the time, there was relatively little awarenss of how big an impact the law would have on fiancial institutions around the world.
