Turks and Caicos Islands-Tax Haven Status a Thing of the past

For all intents and purposes the British Administration led by Gordon BrownGordon Brown seem to be going rouge on its remaining over seas territories particularly those located in the Americas.

The thinking is that this rouge behavior has to do more with the British desire to make good on its promise to Obama to rid itself of tax havens and secrecy laws in its overseas territories than it has to do with corruption by Government and public officials.

Last April, at the G20 summit held in London, Gordon Brown promised the attendants that he would assure and guarantee transparency and economic sustainability in all territories, including tax havens. It required, among other things, that all of the UK's overseas territories sign at least 12 TIEAs to be placed on the OECD list of jurisdictions that had fully implemented internationally agreed tax standards, known as the "white list".

Since Gordon Brown made this promise to Obama and others in April,the Turks and Caicos Islands signed three TIEAs with three members of the OECD: Ireland, the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. it is understood that former Williams administration was also in negotiating TEIAs with a number of other countries, including 7 Nordic Countries, Germany, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA

TIEAs help to disclose assets that have not been reported in home countries and also enable tax authorities to access information about persons who are seeking to evade payment of tax. What is so ironic about these requirements is that overseas practitioners are now required to do the investigative work for these foreign governments against their citizens thereby infringing rights that is otherwise protected in the home OECD countries.

Since, writing this piece it came to my attention that the Turks and caicos islands has now signed 15 of these TIEAs, with that we say so long for the taxs status jurisdiction of the TCI.