Jersey Finance statement on French ministerial decision

Following the decision made by the French government this week to add Jersey to its list of uncooperative jurisdictions, Geoff Cook (pictured), CEO of Jersey Finance, said: “The French administration's decision is surprising and doesn't appear to take into account at all the significant action Jersey has taken this year in support of international moves on transparency and international cooperation.

“The reality is that Jersey has an exemplary track record when it comes to cooperation and is widely regarded as being a compliant jurisdiction by bodies such as the OECD and leading G20 and EU nations. This decision is particularly disappointing given Jersey's recent actions in moving to automatic exchange of information under the EU Savings Tax Directive, signing up to the G20 Action Plan, agreeing to join the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance on Tax Matters, committing to signing up to the US FATCA and UK equivalent, and joining the EU G5 project on automatic exchange of information.

“Our understanding is that this is a bilateral issue relating to some outstanding tax information requests made by the French authorities, through the agreement Jersey signed with France in 2009. Jersey is committed to effectively implementing all of its information exchange agreements with foreign authorities and continues to respond to information requests in accordance with treaty requirements. Jersey's government is strongly engaged with France and is confident it can resolve this issue.”

As Vice Chair of the Peer Review Group of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, Jersey has now completed, agreed or initialled over 50 tax information exchange agreements.