Bermuda hosts 3rd OECD Global Forum on tax matters

MONDAY, MAY 30: I am pleased you are able to join me today at the third meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.

It is a privilege for Bermuda to host the Forum’s meeting and to welcome to Bermuda the OECD Secretariat of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.  As this year the OECD is celebrating its 50th anniversary, I note that it is meeting the increased challenges of the 21st century and the rapidly evolving international playing field.

Many international standards, agreements and public policy agreements originated at the OECD.  Just last week, at the Meeting of the Council of Ministers in Paris, OECD economies determined that it was important to do more to involve partners from non-OECD economies in all aspects of the policy dialogue – from the Green Growth Project, the Gender Initiative, to innovation in government – in order to face the global challenges of the 21st century and find common solutions.

The OECD’s work on international financial centres was center stage at the Council of Ministers, with much discussion of the tax and development programme.  The Global Forum was held up as an example of how the OECD can structure its dialogue with non-OECD economies.

The latest four members of the Global Forum are all non-OECD economies: Colombia, Georgia, Ghana and Nigeria.  The Global Forum now comprises 101 member jurisdictions, with a further 20 new members, mostly from developing countries, expected to join in the coming months.  This is testimony to the commitment of the international community as a whole to the internationally agreed Standard for Exchange of Information upon request and the relevance and effectiveness of our work and the benefits to be derived from membership.

The Global Forum’s central work is to undertake reviews of the legal and regulatory framework for tax information exchange and to consider how it works in practice.  The reviews are carried out by the members of the Global Forum to monitor and review the progress of jurisdictions in implementing the internationally agreed Standard.

The peer review programme has made astonishing progress since its launch in March 2010. To date, around 50 reviews have been launched, and more than 30 peer review reports, including both Phase 1 and combined Phase 1 and Phase 2 reports have been finalized, with the aim of completing 60 reports before the G20 Leaders’ meeting in November 2011.

The Global Forum launched, together with other international organisations, a programme of technical assistance seminars designed to help jurisdictions to prepare for the review process and to improve understanding of their technical assistance requirements.

Bermuda has done much to implement the Standard. We take our role as a responsible and trusted global citizen seriously.

In endorsing the internationally agreed Standard in the year 2000, Bermuda affirmed its long-standing position it does not adopt or promote measures that have been characterized as harmful, such as legislating bank secrecy or embedding in legislation similar measures that prevent disclosure of information.

Bermuda continues to negotiate and conclude TIEAs and other Agreements relating to taxation that provide for the exchange of information on tax matters to the OECD standard – 24 to date.

Bermuda has participated in the peer review process by both contributing assessors, trainers, and being in the first round of those who were peer-reviewed.  At its last meeting, the Global Forum reviewed and ratified Bermuda’s Phase 1 Peer Review Report, with the determinations that Bermuda meets all elements, with some recommendations.

On May 20th, I tabled the Specified Business Legislation Amendment Act 2011 that will address these recommendations. I have asked our Legislature to work to pass this Bill through both our Parliament and Senate by the end of June. When it becomes law, we shall forward it to the PRG as part of our 12 Month Report to our Phase One assessment adopted by this body at the September 2010 Global Forum.

Bermuda is also committed to working with fellow Global Forum members to drive the implementation of the Standard on a global scale. We will continue to play our part as a Vice-Chair of the Steering Group and contribute actively to efforts to advance the Global Forum’s mandate, at the same time continuing to ensure that the perspective of small jurisdictions is considered.