***Isle of Man, Gibraltar and Monaco….***
The **Isle of Man** has signed a tax information exchange agreement with France.
A report from Isle of Man Today last Friday indicated that Manx Treasury Minister Allan Bell said the agreement was critical given French President Nicolas Sarkowsky’s strong rhetoric against tax havens. At that time it was reported that the French Budget Minister would fly to the Island on Thursday to sign the historic agreement.
The agreement is the fourteenth TIEA the Isle of Man has signed, the twelfth with member countries of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, including Australia, Germany, Holland, the UK, Ireland and the Scandinavian countries. TIEAs aim to deliver the OECD’s agreed international standard on tax transparency and exchange of information. The Isle of Man was recognised by the OECD as a *“committed jurisdiction”* in 2001.
An Isle of Man minister was quoted as saying, *“In addition to our agreement with France and the recent one with Germany, we are at advanced stages of negotiation with several other countries and will continue to strive for effective co-operation based on agreed international standards by developing, signing and ratifying further TIEAs.”*
**Gibraltar** also has reiterated its commitment to tax information exchange. A Government statement says it welcomes the recent commitments made by some countries to the OECD exchange of information standard. *”International co-operation on tax matters will inevitably and necessarily be an ingredient of the new financial order that will emerge in the aftermath of the current global financial crisis.”*
The statement noted that Gibraltar remains willing to participate in exchange of information on the OECD model basis. *”We have concluded negotiations of the text of an agreement with the United States of America, and of the operative parts of the text with another of the largest OECD countries. Both are due to be signed shortly.”*
The Gibraltar government also emphasised that it is an “onshore” financial centre in the European Union, stating *“All EU regulatory and supervisory directives and other laws, as well as all European Union laws, agreements and measures relating to transparency, exchange of information (including for tax purposes) and regulatory co-operation and direct taxation already apply in Gibraltar.”*
And today, as well, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría welcomed an announcement by **Monaco** that it is prepared to enter into agreements for the exchange of information in all tax matters in accordance with international standards developed by the OECD and recognised by the United Nations.
The OECD announced that in a letter to its Secretary-General, the Principality of Monaco stated that it is prepared to expand the scope of an anti-fraud agreement that it is negotiating with the European Commission so that the agreement incorporates the OECD standards fully. Monaco expressed the hope that this agreement can be finalised by the end of 2009, so as to allow it to exchange information in all tax matters with all European Union member states that are signatories to the agreement. In addition, Monaco announced that it is prepared to negotiate tax information exchange agreements with all countries that wish to do so, and in particular with those members of the G-20 that are not also members of the EU.
In the last few weeks, several jurisdictions have announced that they are ready to adopt the international standards. Commenting on these developments, Jeffrey Owens, Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, said “*These announcements demonstrate that acceptance of the OECD principles of transparency and information exchange is no longer an issue. The key now is to ensure rapid implementation, and the OECD will monitor progress very closely.”*