Isle of Man and United Kingdom Sign Tax Information Sharing Agreement to Tackle Offshore Evasion
The UK Government has signed an agreement with the Isle of Man targeting those with offshore accounts. Signed on Thursday 10 October, the agreement is the first ever automatic tax information exchange agreement based on FATCA (the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) to be signed between two parties outside of the US.
The UK government is calling this “a significant move towards a new global standard in the automatic exchange of tax information”.
The Government is seeking to sign further agreements with other jurisdictions as soon as possible and is currently in discussions with the remainder of the Crown Dependencies and the Overseas Territories to do so.
A wide range of financial information on UK taxpayers with accounts in the Isle of Man will now be reported to HMRC automatically each year significantly enhancing HMRC's ability to close in on those who do not declare their offshore affairs.
Also recently announced, South Africa and the UK have agreed to work together to tackle offshore tax evasion, including through pressing for stronger international action. As a result, South Africa will join the pilot scheme for the automatic exchange of tax information launched by the United Kingdom, along with France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
This initiative has received growing support worldwide with a growing number of jurisdictions committed to quickly implementing the new standard in the automatic exchange of tax information being developed by the OECD.
Greater tax transparency and exchange of information is intended to benefit both developed and developing countries. The G20 has committed to provide technical assistance to developing countries to ensure they can benefit from greater tax transparency, given the importance taxation plays in governance and state-building.
As part of this, the United Kingdom and South Africa have committed to a long-term partnership to support the tax capacity building of revenue authorities in the region.
More information on both of the above is available on the HM Treasury website.