Tax law does comply with human rights, court rules

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has overturned a ruling from Jersey's Court of Appeal

A Jersey tax law does comply with human rights, a senior UK court has ruled.

Jersey's attorney general, the Jersey Competent Authority and the treasury minister lodged an appeal over a ruling made by the island's Court of Appeal about how authorities might share private tax information with other jurisdictions.

The court had ruled the International Co-operation (Protection from Liability) (Jersey) Law 2018 is incompatible with human rights after Imperium Trustees (Jersey) Limited argued the information should be kept private.

On Tuesday, the London-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council overturned the ruling made in 2024.

Provisions within the law place limits on the costs and damages that can be awarded against public authorities in Jersey when they have made decisions in good faith to fulfil a request from the authority of another country, the government said.

In its ruling, Jersey's Court of Appeal said provisions within the law infringed Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The government said the ruling was the first declaration of incompatibility made by a Jersey court.

But the Judicial Committee said that, as the proceedings were a "tax matter", the main issue was the lawfulness of a notice to produce tax information rather than the confidentiality issues raised by Imperium.

In its ruling, the Judicial Committee - which is the final court of appeal for the UK overseas territories and Crown dependencies - said it did not consider article 6(1) of the ECHR had been engaged.