The other three jurisdictions given the largely compliant rating by the OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes were Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Germany.
Canada, for example, was cited by the Global Forum as having generally well implemented in practice its beneficial ownership arrangements but that improvements were needed “in respect of the legal framework”.
Ireland, Mauritius, and Norway were rated more highly as compliant, while Jamaica emerged as only partially compliant leading the Global Forum to launch a supplementary report on follow-up measures to ensure a higher level of compliance.
The peer review focus on a total of 10 jurisdictions was launched in mid-2016 following a six-year process during which the Global Forum assessed the legal and regulatory framework for information exchange (Phase 1) as well as the actual practices and procedures (Phase 2) in 119 jurisdictions worldwide.
Global Forum members are working together to monitor and review implementation of the international standard for the automatic exchange of financial account information, under the Common Reporting Standard which will start in September 2017.
In June, the UK’s HM Revenue & Customs revealed details of its specifically targeted beneficial ownership register for trusts with a deadline of 5 October this year for new trusts to register and for information on existing trusts to be provided by 31 January 2018.
