Tax & Accounting News

Increasing Scrutiny For Offshore Centres

21/12/2009

A senior figure from the Isle of Man has predicted that the global crackdown on offshore financial centres will continue for at least the next five years.

Malcolm Couch, an assessor of Income Tax for the crown dependency, warned that the world’s attention would continue to be focused on the development and implementation of global tax standards, in an effort to prevent wealthy individuals from hiding their assets overseas at a time when many governments were desperate to raise more tax.

Speaking at a conference on the future of onshore and offshore financial centres, he said the evolution of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information into a formal body to review international tax standards showed the intention of the world’s governments to tackle the problem.

He added that the Isle of Man would continue its programme of co-operating with countries around the world on tax matters, pointing out that a number of double taxation agreements and tax information agreements had been signed this year.