Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man have today announced a series of steps regarding each jurisdiction’s central register of beneficial ownership information of companies.
Responding to the announcement, John Christensen, Director at the Tax Justice Network, said:
“This is the opposite of leadership. It took the allied powers six months to plan and successfully carry out the D-Day landings. It took Thomas Edison two years to create the lightbulb. The Crown Dependencies have today set out a three year plan to table a discussion in parliament with no commitments and no details on whether they will comply with emerging international standards on beneficial ownership transparency.
“For public beneficial ownership to be effective in tackling financial crime and tax abuse, it must cover all types of legal entities and legal arrangements, including trusts and foundations. And verified data must be readily available to the public from day one. Anything short of this cannot be considered meaningful action, let alone leadership in the global fight against criminal and corrupt practices.”
Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man respectively ranked the 7th, 15th and 17th most corrosive corporate tax havens in the world on the Tax Justice Network’s Corporate Tax Haven Indexpublished last month.