Cayman signs tax information pact

From IFC Review

The Cayman Islands signed an agreement for the automatic exchange of information among tax authorities in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday, reports the Cayman Compass.

The Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement, which was concluded by 51 countries, activates the automatic exchange of information based on the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.

Early adopters who signed the agreement have pledged to work toward launching their first information exchanges by September 2017. Others are expected to follow in 2018.

The agreement was developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in cooperation with G20 countries.

Minister of Financial Services Wayne Panton, who signed on behalf of the government said, “For Cayman to sign the [Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement] is a logical progression in our long-standing international cooperation efforts, and we are pleased that so many countries and jurisdictions are now part of this worldwide effort to fight tax evasion via a global standard, across borders.”

While Cayman is one of the 51 early adopters that have committed to begin exchanging information in 2017, Cayman’s history of cooperation dates back to 2005 with participation in the European Union Savings Directive.

“In April 2013, based on our understanding of the direction of global efforts, we informed the U.K. that we would join what was known then as the G5 pilot – an initiative announced by the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain, regarding the multilateral automatic exchange of tax information,” Mr Panton added.

More than 90 countries now have committed to implementing the new global standard of automatic AEOI.

Minister Panton said the U.S. has also indicated that it will undertake automatic exchange of tax information pursuant to FATCA from 2015, and that it has entered into intergovernmental agreements with jurisdictions, including Cayman, to do so.

The signing was held after the seventh meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, in Berlin.

The new standard for automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters was presented by the OECD to the G20 finance ministers during a meeting in Cairns last September. It provides for exchange of all financial information on an annual basis, automatically. Most jurisdictions have committed to implementing this standard on a reciprocal basis with all interested jurisdictions.

The Global Forum will establish a peer review process to ensure the implementation of automatic exchange. Governments also agreed to raise the bar on the standard of exchange of information upon request, by including a requirement that beneficial ownership of all legal entities be available to tax authorities and exchanged with treaty partners.

“We are making concrete progress toward the G20 objective of winning the fight against tax evasion,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said after the signing ceremony. “The fact that so many jurisdictions have agreed today to automatically exchange financial account information shows the significant change that can occur when the international community works together in a focused and ambitious manner. The world is quickly becoming a smaller place for tax cheats, and we are determined to ensure that developing countries also reap the benefits of greater financial sector transparency.”

For more on this story go to: http://www.ifcreview.com/viewnews.aspx?articleId=8548

IMAGE: www.financialexpress.com

Time to deal with the epidemic of violence in Latin America and the Caribbean

By Robert Muggah and Sam Doe From IPI Global Observatory

The daily bloodshed on the United States’ doorstep is the clearest sign that something is rotten in the neighborhood. Headless torsos swinging from lampposts in Ciudad Juárez in Mexico contrast all too sharply with the clean streets of El Paso just across the border, ranked one of the safest city’s in the United States. But Mexico is not alone in experiencing alarming rates of violence. Taken together, the Americas are home to 14 percent of the world’s population, but more than 31 percent of its homicides according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

A ruthless epidemic of violence is afflicting many states and cities in Central and South America and the Caribbean. The region’s homicide rate is more than double the global average. And in contrast to other parts of the world, whether North America, Western Europe, Africa, or Asia, the patient is getting sicker. Six of the top ten most violent countries in the world are in Latin America and the Caribbean, with most of the victims consisting of young men under 30-years of age. Violence against women is also intensifying. And for youth living in low-income settings, there is a 1 in 50 chance that they will be killed before they reach their 31st birthday.

The sad fact is that homicidal violence is just the bloody tip of the iceberg. Mexicans, Guatemalans, Colombians, and Jamaicans are fleeing violence-plagued communities in greater numbers than ever before. Literally hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by an explosion of cartel violence in northern Mexico, and the middle class are quietly packing their bags from Caracas to San Salvador. Just as worrying, after a period of decline, rates of kidnapping and other forms of extortion are increasing in some countries. All of this stands in contrast to the region’s impressive economic growth over the past decade. But in spite of heated rhetoric to “fight” crime with more police and prisons, the violence seems to be worsening.

Not surprisingly, Latin Americans and Caribbeans are resorting to private measures to protect themselves. The private security business is booming, worth between $100 and $165 billion a year. The region’s private security personnel today outnumber police officers by almost two to one. By way of example, there are roughly 470,000 registered private guards in Brazil and another 450,000 in Mexico. And while the region’s elite are able to afford more armed guards and higher gates, the poor resort to self-defense groups and gangs. Vigilante justice is becoming increasingly common across northern Mexico and in other countries in South America and the Caribbean in the wake of police inaction.

There is no single factor that can adequately explain Latin America and the Caribbean’s surge in violence. There are, however, a host of recurring risk factors that are known to correlate strongly with insecurity. In contrast to popular belief, poverty is not strongly associated with violence. Rather, social and economic inequality and exclusion, youth unemployment, rapid and unregulated urbanization, weak police and justice institutions, and the widespread availability of alcohol, drugs, and firearms are more tightly associated with lethal outcomes. These factors, coupled with a misguided war on drugs and the deportation of former convicts from the United States, are the real culprits.

Over the past decade, so-called mano dura (heavy fist) approaches—combining forceful policing, stiffer penalties, and fast-track incarceration—were adopted by some governments to counter violence. But rather than preventing victimization, they instead ratcheted it up and filled already overcrowded prisons to bursting point. These “crime colleges” have also unintentionally deepened networks of gang members rather than contributing to their rehabilitation.

More positively, a new generation of enlightened public and private leaders is calling for renewed investment in citizen security. Sometimes with modest support from international agencies such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations, metropolitan settings like Bogota, Rio de Janeiro, and San Salvador are making progress in reversing violence and promoting social cohesion.

When courageous and legitimate political leadership is demonstrated, citizens are also more likely to take a proactive role in promoting safety and security. Nongovernmental organizations, civic action groups, private companies, and universities across Latin America and the Caribbean are emphatically saying no to violence. Social movements such as Yo Soy 132 in Mexico and Twitter and Facebook campaigns are making these voices heard, as they demand more accountability and inclusive public security. These efforts need to be supported, including by the United Nations and others in the international community. One obvious way to advance the agenda is to make citizen security and violence reduction a core foundation of the post-2015 development agenda. Put succinctly, freedom from violence is central to, and not a byproduct of, human development.

Robert Muggah is the Research Director of the Igarapé Institute in Rio de Janeiro. Sam Doe is affiliated with the United Nations Development Program in New York.

For more on this story go to: http://theglobalobservatory.org/2013/02/time-to-deal-with-the-epidemic-of-violence-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean/

IMAGE: www.ticotimes.net