Cayman signs TIEA with France
(CNS): The Cayman Islands government has signed its thirteenth Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA), the Ministry of Financial Services announced today (Wednesday 14 October). This latest TIEA was signed with France via an exchange of letters on 5 October 2009. The agreement was considered legally binding following receipt and signature by Eric Woerth, the French Minister for Budget Management, Public Accounts of the Civil Service and State Reform. The agreement was signed on behalf of the Cayman Islands by the Leader of Government Business and Minister for Financial Services, McKeeva Bush.
Bush said in a release from the ministry, “This signing, secured by the Ministry of Financial Services negotiating team signifies the Cayman Islands continued commitment to OECD standards for transparency and exchange of information on tax matters. The Cayman Islands is committed to endorsing OECD standards and we are determined to implement them fully.”
Following a mid-year acceleration to expand its network of signed agreements, the Cayman Islands received international recognition in mid-August when it ascended to the OECD’s “white list” of jurisdictions that have substantially implemented the internationally agreed tax standard. In September, the Cayman Islands was elected a member of the Steering Group of the OECD Global Forum.
Bush added, “We hope that this agreement will act as a catalyst for French companies looking to diversify into new markets. Whilst providing the assurance of mutual cooperation, market access and smooth capital flows, we are hoping it will contribute to growth in international business and to stimulating our local economy.”
Category: Business
I agree with the post below. The fact that they were able to sign this agreement and send it by post proves that all those fancy and expensive trips for Mac and his cronies werea complete waste of our money. I didn’t understand that he had fooled as again until I saw this story. When are we going to learn.
I also have to say that I had a really good laugh and so did some of the other people here at the idea of the other poster who thought that foreign leaders would feel slighted if His Imperial Highness did not visit them.
please refrain from posting comments on topics on which you clearly don’t know much.
to explain:
prior to the last few tiea’s being signed, Cayman was still on the grey list..perceptions of Cayman as being non-compliant were high, and this was very detrimental to business here – both existing and potential.
something had to be done quick, and very visibly to address the very damaged state that we were in.
the change of administration in Cayman provided a perfect opportunity to show a complete "change of direction" in terms of how Cayman was going to deal with this issue in a very fundamental way.
The only way to do this was to show the highest elected politicians and appropriate officials and consultants personally and very visibly negotiating and personally signing these agreements, and as a result moving Cayman to the white list.
and.. guess what – it worked.
the required number of agreements have been signed, Cayman is off the grey list, and while there is still much work to be done, the international community is seeing Cayman in a much more postitive light.
This had to be an absolute priority for Mr Bush and his team, and he must be applauded for the work done in such a short space of time, and the gravity of the potential crisis if this had not been acheived cannot be over exagerated.
the TIEA with France is also very important, and shows that the team are not resting on their laurals, but are continuing to press on with their programme. however, the immediate crisis has now passed, and thus a personal and highly visable signing was not as critical.
some other notes:
1. some countries could feel slighted if the signing is not conducted by Mr Bush, and therefore in those occassions it will be still be appropriate for apersonal signing
2. in many cases, other official business is being conducted in the relevant country and therefore a signing is arranged at the same time
3. how can you be so sure that friends and family were part of the trip and that is was extravagant? my understanding that any persons travelling with family members paid their own way
4. given the amount of time that some gov officals have to spend away from their family – either abroad or working here in Cayman – it is only reasonable that family members join them on some official trips – as long as their own expenses are paid
I hope that you find this post educational, and that you refrain from making comments in the future without doing some approprate research in the first place.
"prior to the last few tiea’s being signed, Cayman was still on the grey list..perceptions of Cayman as being non-compliant were high, and this was very detrimental to business here – both existing and potential".
Nonsense. There is no verifiable data to show that Cayman’s grey-listing was actually detrimental to business here, either existing or potential. Many large clients of professional firms did not attribute much significance to the grey-listing. All of that was highly exaggerated for political purposes.
Absolutely right. The "grey list" politics of fear campaign was highly political and designed by a few rich supports of the Premier Designate to scare Caymanians into accepting these agreements which do not benefit ordinary Caymanians. Our competitors did not give in to these duppie stories and as a result are much better positioned for the future.
umm what???
there is not one word in that post that makes any sense at all.
Actually it makes perfect sense and reflects a logical analysis of what anyone paying attention has observed over the past few months. Try reading it again.
sorry – CNS were posting too slowly and I was replying to the post above. yours made perfect sense!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8266820.stm
skip to the last part of the article. the OECD list will eventually matter for those countries still on the grey or blacklist
Actually our competitors are now on the white list and the US and EU are drawing up sanctions for grey list countries.
In French recently withdrew all French based banks from grey listed jurisdictions. Julius Baer and a few othwer Swiss banks are following.
The pacific jurisdictions have almost all thrown in the towel,
But don’t let some information and evidence get in the way of your ignorance.
Freaking hilarious
But didn’t Travers say that the OECD was "impotent"?
The point Travers was making was that whilst the OECD had no constitutional authority under its charter documents to impose economic sanctions directly and was therefore not a direct threat real difficulty would arise for the financial industry if Cayman remained grey listed because G 20 Nations would independently use the grey list as a reference tool.In any event it wasprobably the right move to play down the effect of the grey list at the time
exaggerated by the business’s that were begging the Gov to sign the TIEA’s? I don’t think so. They don’t care about politics – they care about business. would you prefer that we remained on the grey list? get real.
Oh, I am very real. I am on the frontline and know precisely what I am talking about. There were certainly fears locally that it would result in loss of business. My point – and I repeat – is that there is no verifiable data to support the notion that greylisting actually did harm existing or potential business. For example, notwithstanding that they were on the white list the Channel Islands lost business to Switzerland who were on the greylist.
As for businesses not caring about politics you are clearly very naive. A particular business will favour a candidate or party if they believe they will implement policies to suit them (e.g. 5 year work permits, mass grants of permanent residence for those in the financial industry). In their view the PPM was too protectionist of Caymanians and therefore any propaganda to remove them was fair game.
how foolish. you suggest we showed some "change in direction," yet those TIEA were already 95% finalised by the previous government. all bush had to do was sign a piece of paper. and those countries (and any others interested in the OECD status of cayman) knew that already. the european tour was a domestic political ploy, nothing else. it’s laughable you think any country would be insulted if we didn’t send mr. bush in person to sign an agreement (do you think cayman is held in that kind of esteem in the international politics arena?). notice the lower officials that meet with our head of state if you want proof of that.
i will say this, though; as a domestical political farce, the udp did pretty well with it. i mean, they’ve completely hoodwinked you. (and in the udp’s eyes, that makes it worth the waste of money to send them all over there in pompous ceremony)
As a person who supported the UDP up until recently may I ask you to please refrain from posting complete nonsense that just makes the government look silly. The peope of Cayman are not as ignorant as you might wish. Let me give you a few little corrections.
a perfect opportunity to show a complete "change of direction" in terms of how Cayman was going to deal with this issue
The agreements that were signed after the end of May were ones which were already substantially negotiated and scheduled by the previous administration. Everybody knows this and attempting to change the facts does not make the Party look good. The only change in direction after the election was from securing benefits which looked after the long term interests of all Caymanians to one looking after the short term interests of a few already rich individuals – just like the current proposals on work permits. Cayman did not get off the grey list any quicker under the new clique than we would have under the informed path being taken previously. The "complete change in direction" has taken us in the wrong direction in terms of securing long term benefits for all Caymanians.
only way to do this was to show the highest elected politicians and appropriate officials and consultants personally and very visibly negotiating and personally signing these agreements
Rubbish. Other countries which made it onto the white list did not have wannabee emperors and hangers on making first class grand tours of Europe to do so. They did so using one or two competent technicians, telephones and very occasional and brief trips. All of that can be seen from their press releases. The reality is that nothing was achieved by having Mac and his baggage carriers travelling like princes, other than spending a huge amount of our money.
1. some countries could feel slighted if the signing is not conducted by Mr Bush, and therefore in those occassions it will be still be appropriate for a personal signing
Give us some credit for intelligence – no country with which Cayman signed had their head of government signing. Most people signing in person on behalf of the other countries were low level bureaucrats forced to show up to provide an excuse for Mr. Bush’s grand tour. Mr Bush is not that much in demand by foreign governments. I am quite sure that very few if any European heads of government had ever heard of Mr Bush before he annouced to the world that Cayman isbroke. The only thing that is certain is that the expensive restaurants and hotels in the European countries visited were grateful for our hard earned money.
how can you be so sure that friends and family were part of the trip and that is was extravagant? my understanding that any persons travelling with family members paid their own way
4. given the amount of time that some gov officals have to spend away from their family – either abroad or working here in Cayman – it is only reasonable that family members join them on some official trips – as long as their own expenses are paid
The fact that friends and family tagged along was well publicised. Given that the agreement with France has clearly shown that having Mr. Bush and his grand entourage going off on a extravagant European holiday was not required in the first place in order to have these agreements signed, there is absolutely no excuse for family and friends to be travelling at our expense. There is also no excuse for Mr. Bush to be away for so long when there are so many problems in our country to be dealt with. Shame on him.
The fact that this agreement was concluded by exchange of letters provides confirmation that the extravagent trips to Europe with family and friends supposedly necessary to sign these agreements were unnecessary and a waste of our money. They could have all been handled the way this most recent one was.