2013 Offshore Alert panel presentation; UK's G8 Agenda - tax, transparency and trade

1. The G8 Agenda and Taxation
Dax Basdeo, Ph.D.
Chief Officer, Ministry for Financial Services
Cayman Islands Government
7 May 2013 | OffshoreAlert Conference | Miami, Florida

2. Global Context
• Financial Crisis
• Global Economic Recovery
• Multiple Agenda
– G20
– G8
– G0.7
– EU
– UN

3. The UK’s G8 Agenda
• Davos Speech (24 January 2013)
– Advancing trade (integration)
– Ensuring tax compliance (tax evasion & aggressive tax
avoidance)
– Promoting greater transparency
(corruption / extractive industries)
• Communication with OTs and CDs (26 March 2013)
– UK FATCA, OECD Multilateral Convention
– Revised FATF Standards
– Anti-Corruption
– OECD Multilateral Convention  Multilateral Pilot (24 April
2013)

4. EU Agenda
• Communication: ‘Fight against tax fraud and tax
evasion’ (27 June 2012)
• Action Plan (6 December 2012)
– Aggressive tax planning
– Encouraging third countries
• ECOFIN (13 April 2013)
– Semeta: ‘The surge … in appetite for progress and
action’
• Launch of Tax Good Governance Platform (23 April
2013)

5. G20: Automatic EOI
• ‘We welcome and endorse the improved OECD
standard with respect to information requests’ (November
2012)
• ‘We reiterate our commitment to extending the
practice of automatic exchange of information’ (February
2013)
• ‘We look forward to the OECD working with G20
countries to report back on the progress in developing
of a new multilateral standard on automatic exchange
of information’ (April 2013)

6. OECD & FATF
• OECD
– Report on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (February
2013)
– Report to G20 (April 2013)
– BEPS Action Plan (July 2013)
– Transparency Ratings (September 2013)
• FATF
– Revised Recommendations (February 2012)
• CFATF reviews expected to begin in Q4 2014
– Revised Methodology (February 2013)

7. Jurisdictional
Responses
• Luxembourg, Austria
• Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey
• Anguilla, Bermuda, BVI, Turks and
Caicos, Montserrat
• Cayman Islands

8. Media & Public
Opinion
• Poverty vs. Inequality
• Evasion & Avoidance
• Optimisation vs. Aggressive Tax Planning
• Data Leaks & Scandals
• Scope of the Problem
• Heart vs. Mind

9. Fair Share
• Blame?
– Government / Tax Code
– MNCs
– Service Providers
– Offshore Centres
• Benefits?
– Taxpayers
– Developing Countries