New agreement with Liechtenstein
The Government of Liechtenstein have announced that they have committed to signing up to theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) standards of transparency and exchange of information.
This move by Liechtenstein was made in advance of the G20 meeting after the country was put on a list of uncooperative tax havens.
HMRC have been working with the OECD and other bodies to help bring about this change. It is hoped that following this announcement that Liechtenstein will shortly begin to make moves to improve its openness and transparency.
In an announcement the Financial Secretary to the Treasury commented “tax secrecy is fast becoming entirely unacceptable. We now need to see Liechtenstein move quickly to take the concrete steps which need to follow”.
The UK is also discussing how to obtain historic information from Liechtenstein banks on suspected tax fraud cases.