Above: Georgetown (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Cayman Islands has committed to joining a recently-announced pilot on multilateral automatic exchange of tax information.

Cayman expressed its interest in the pilot, which was recently announced by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, in a letter to UK Prime Minister David Cameron by Cayman Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly.

“We welcome these efforts to promote an effective global mechanism for automatic exchange of information for tax purposes, in which all jurisdictions participate and where a common approach will not only ensure efficiencies of cost and resources, but will also avoid the risk of multiple competing standards,” Cayman’s Premier wrote. “Accordingly, we would call on other jurisdictions to commit to this initiative, which will take us to a new level of tax transparency and remove hiding places for those who would seek to evade tax and dodge their responsibilities.”

The Premier also wrote that Cayman was “committed” to reviewing its legal and regulatory framework, including conducting a national threat assessment.

“The Cayman Islands has always taken a leading role in the fight against money laundering, terrorist financing and all forms of financial crime, as is evidenced by consistent compliance with the standards,” she wrote.

Officials from Cayman’s Ministry of Finance are concluding a visit to London this week focusing on compliance with the US and UK FATCA laws.