UK & Guernsey tax agreement would be 'significant'

Mr Bell said the island had shown leadership on the issue

A proposed tax information agreement between the UK and Guernsey has been welcomed by the Isle of Man's Chief Minister Allan Bell.

The move would mirror an agreement signed between the Isle of Man and the UK in December.

Allan Bell said the announcement is "significant but not surprising."

Last week, Guernsey's chief minster Deputy Peter Harwood said the FATCA-style deal was close to being finalised.

Mr Harwood said the document would see more information about non-domiciled UK residents' tax affairs exchanges between the jurisdictions.

He added that it would serve to help improve transparency and reduce international tax evasion.

'Clarity and certainty'

Mr Bell said: "It confirms our view that FATCA is becoming the new global standard and that other jurisdictions will inevitably have to follow the Isle of Man's lead on this issue."

"Guernsey's proposed agreement with the UK seems to mirror ours, but by making our announcement three months ago we have given our finance sector an additional period of clarity and certainty about our direction of travel," he said.

The Isle of Man became the first jurisdiction to commit to UK FATCA on 7 December 2012.

Under the agreement, the Isle of Man and UK will automatically exchange a wide range of information on tax residents, on a reciprocal basis.

The agreement followed the introduction of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in the United States.

FATCA was implemented by the US government to clamp down on the growing number of US citizens who were discovered trying to evade tax by holding bank and wealth accounts overseas.