A tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) between the Isle of Man Government and the Spanish authorities took place at a ceremony held in London on 3 December, paving the way for the ending of the blacklisting status.
Only last June, International Adviser reported how Isle of Man chief minister Allan Bell had labelled TIEAs as “redundant” and defended the lack of any new double taxation agreements signed by the island since the one with Luxembourg in April 2013.
The Isle of Man now has a total of 35 TIEAs, alongside its 10 double taxation agreements.
The agreement with Spain was signed by José Manuel Gutiérrez Delgado, financial counsellor of the embassy of Spain to the UK, and Eddie Teare, the Isle of Man’s treasury minister.
Teare said in a statement that Spain was both a member of the European Union and the OECD and last year, like the Isle of Man, was one of the first countries to commit to sharing information in accordance with the OECD Common Reporting Standard.
“The signing of this TIEA is another important step in building closer relations between our two countries and will lead to Spain removing the Isle of Man from a ‘tax haven blacklist’ established under Spanish law in 2006.”
He added: “This recognition of our shared values and goals makes the TIEA a very significant addition to the Isle of Man’s network of international tax agreements.”
After the UK Government’s Autumn Statement, Bell predicted that George Osborne would struggle to raise an additional £5bn a year from clamping down further on tax avoidance and evasion.
“It’s not true that there are hundreds of millions of pounds squirrelled away in the crown dependencies, and it’s a struggle to think where they are going to raise this amount of money”, he said.
