Guernsey removed from Italian tax blacklist

The Italian Ministry of Finance has removed Guernsey from its revised tax blacklist.

Amendments within the 2015 Finance Act mean that the anti-tax haven deduction blacklist has been revised to exclude all countries that have an adequate exchange of information with Italy.

Sinéad Leddy, Head of Technical at Guernsey Finance – the promotional agency for the Island’s finance industry internationally, said: “This is welcome news for the practitioners within our finance industry as it should open up some interesting opportunities across the finance sector but particularly within the private wealth sector. The only disappointment is that it has taken so long for Italy to overcome some outdated prejudices and recognise the high standards of tax information exchange applied in Guernsey.

“Guernsey was among the first set of jurisdictions placed on the OECD ‘white list’ for exchange of information standards in 2009. A Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with Italy was signed in September 2012, at the same time as our tax regime was reviewed and given a clean bill of health by the EU.

“Guernsey has been participating in the OECD’s Convention on Mutual Assistance in Tax Matters (MAC) since August last year and in October 2014 Guernsey agreed to be among the first wave of jurisdictions to adopt the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS).

“All of the above demonstrate Guernsey’s ongoing commitment to meeting leading global standards for tax information exchange. I’m pleased that this has now been recognised by the Italian tax authorities and we look forward to other jurisdictions following suit. Guernsey Finance will be working in partnership with industry and government to ensure that progress on such matters is made as quickly as possible.”