29 October 2014
Today in Berlin Senator Philip Ozouf joined with other members of an ‘Early Adopters Group’ of 51 countries and jurisdictions in a signing ceremony hosted by the German Minister of Finance, Dr Wolfgang Schäuble.
The signing of a multilateral competent authority agreement was a further step in the implementation of a new single global standard for automatic exchange of taxpayer information.
Senator Ozouf said “This was further evidence of the positive role that Jersey has played and continues to play in support of international initiatives designed to stamp out the crime of tax evasion and to tackle tax fraud. The signing ceremony was also an excellent opportunity to meet with other Ministers and share views.”
Highest standards of transparency
A statement issued by the Early Adopters Group said “As a result of the leadership the Early Adopters Group has shown and continues to show, all major financial centres have now committed themselves to a concrete timetable of first exchange of information in either 2017 or 2018… In doing so, we have recognised that only those financial centres which adopt the highest standards of transparency and work in close cooperation with each other will be those that prosper in the future.”
Before the signing ceremony, Senator Ozouf also participated with three other Ministers in a panel discussion as part of the meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. In his presentation he emphasised Jersey’s contribution to current international initiatives and its full and active support of the work of the Global Forum in encouraging all to meet the current international standards.
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