Cayman Finance welcomes the recent independent assessment by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, which demonstrated that standards for transparency and tax information have been properly implemented in the Cayman Islands.

“Cayman Finance is very pleased to note these results. It is not surprising because the jurisdiction has always committed itself fully to complying with all reasonable global standards”, said Mr. Gonzalo Jalles, CEO of Cayman Finance.

Mr. Jalles explained that not only is it important that the independent assessment found that Cayman was implementing the necessary standards, but that this was a testament to all the various stakeholders involved.

The OECD issued its Phase 2 report, which focused on implementation of tax information exchange and transparency standards in April 2013. Among the many positive comments in the report, the OECD states the Tax Information Authority’s exchange process is “very well organized with many internal processes in place for handling EOI requests as well as the unit being well resourced in personnel, IT and technical expertise. As a result, high quality responses are provided to partner jurisdictions and in 87% of cases the time in which a final response was provided has been less than 90 days”.

“This demonstrates that all local stakeholders including CIMA, the Tax Authority, industry practitioners, and the public sector have been able to work together to ensure that when this jurisdiction makes a commitment we follow through on our obligations to international standards.  Everyone, and particularly Duncan Nicol and the Tax Information Authority, should all be commended for the hard work involved in ensuring we remain one of the world’s most highly regulated jurisdictions as measured by independent assessments such as this one”, said Mr. Jalles.

See iNews Cayman story published April 14 2013 “Global Forum confirms Cayman’s ability to provide tax information” at http://www.ieyenews.com/2013/04/global-forum-confirms-caymans-ability-to-provide-tax-information/

See also related iNews Cayman story published April17 2013 “Cayman has nothing to fear from FATCA” at http://www.ieyenews.com/2013/04/cayman-has-nothing-to-fear-from-fatca/