Bush sets date for 12th TIEA

(CNS): The Cayman Islands will sign the all important twelfth bi-lateral Tax Information Exchange Agreement in Washington Thursday, 13 August with the New Zealand government. Leader of Government Business McKeeva Bush said the government continues in its commitment to complete agreements in order to remove Cayman from the OECD’s grey list.  He added that discussions continue with Australia, Canada, France, German, Italy, Mexico, and Portugal.

The Cayman Islands currently has 11 bilateral agreements in place. In2001 Cayman signed its first agreement with the United States but it was not until this year that Cayman signed any further bi-lateral TIEA. The PPM signed with seven Nordic states in March 2009 and since taking office the UDP has signed with the UK, Ireland and most recently the Netherlands. While it is hoped the 12^th deal will remove Cayman from the OECD’s list of less than fully co-operative nations recent comments by G8 countries and the OECD have indicated that just having TIEA is not enough.

Bush said recently however that he was confident that 12 agreements would see Cayman moved to the white list. “…Based on the discussions I have had with OECD officials,” he said last week that it is unlikely that the OECD would not move Cayman and that the organisation recognised Cayman’s commitment to the agreements.