Signed today – and slipped out on HMRC’s web site without a press release (I wonder why?) is a double tax agreement (yes, I mean that – a DTA, not a Tax Information Exchange Agreement) with the Cayman islands.
It’s available here.
It’s not, I hasten to add a full blown DTA.
But then, it’s not a full blown TIEA either.
In fact the extraordinary thing is that the information exchange clause is far less onerous than a TIEA. So, for example, there is no reference to the need for the parties to be able to prove beneficial ownership of trusts, companies and other arrangements in their territories, which i TIEA should require.
For all practical purposes this renders the thing (let’s call it a ‚Äòthing’ because there appears no proper name as yet for such a botch) pretty close to useless, and certainly of less use than the already near useless TIEAs.
The real question is – who asked for the downgrade on this point – the UK or Cayman? The former will have at least as many problems as the latter in complying.
Either way this is a massive embarrassment to the UK – and no way for Gordon brown to pursue his campaign on tax havens.
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Not much changes then.
[...] Fiddles Agreement With Cayman Tax Haven 15 June, 2009 — RickB Everyone should read Richard Murphy! Signed today – and slipped out on HMRC’s web site without a press release (I wonder why?) is [...]
[...] It’s time to get acts together. Cayman has, I am pretty sure, rumbled this. And as a result are going to get away with a DTA that is almost meaningless. [...]
[...] made my position clear on this yesterday and the Guardian quoted me in another part of the article referred [...]