The Cayman Islands Government, along with its fellow 126 members of the OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, received an email signed jointly by the Director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA), and the Head of the Global Forum Secretariat, in relation to the EU Commission’s ‘blacklist’.

‘As the OECD and the Global Forum we would like to confirm that the only agreeable assessment of countries as regards their cooperation is made by the Global Forum and that a number of countries identified in the EU exercise are either fully or largely compliant and have committed to AEOI, sometimes even as early adopters’, the email states.

‘Without prejudice to countries’ sovereign positions, we are happy to confirm that these jurisdictions are cooperative and we would like to commend the tremendous progress made over the past years as well as the cooperation and integrity of the Global Forum process’.

The email was signed by the CTPA’s Director Pascal Saint-Amans, and the Global Forum Secretariat’s Head, Monica Bhatia.

On 17 June the EU Commission issued its Comprehensive ‘Action Plan for Fair and Efficient Corporate Taxation in the EU’. The ‘blacklist’, officially called the ‘announcement on non-cooperative jurisdictions’, is part of the comprehensive plan.

Mr Saint-Amans and Ms Bhatia further noted that the EU Commission has incorporated the Global Forum’s terms of reference into its own principles of good governance in tax matters.

‘We have already expressed our concerns (to the EU Commission) and stand ready to further clarify to the media the position of the affected jurisdictions with regard to their compliance with the Global Forum standards’, Mr Saint-Amans and Ms Bhatia wrote.

The CTPA is the focal point for the OECD’s work on all taxation issues, both international and domestic. It enhances the OECD’s global role in standard-setting, building knowledge, and interacting with governments to inform and influence policy making in the tax area; and collaborates with other parts of the OECD on horizontal issues such as tax and climate change, tax and growth, and the impact of taxation on labour markets.
The OECD’s Global Forum is the largest tax body in the world, with 127 member countries. Cayman sits on its 19-member Steering Group; and 30-member Peer Review Group.