MEPs hear out Cayman Islands minister on tax matters 

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MEPs on Monday quizzed representatives of the Cayman Islands on the country’s commitments for greater tax transparency and adherence to EU and OECD tax standards.

The hearing, organised by the EP’s subcommittee on tax matters, heard from André Ebanks, Minister for Financial Services and Commerce of the Cayman Islands. Mr Ebanks set out the tax system for his country arguing that its indirect nature was due to the country’s circumstances rather than some attempt at maximising global tax competition. He also argued that the country respected all rules, had a transparent system, and collected beneficial ownership information.


During the question and answer session, MEPs asked how the Cayman Islands planned on adapting to the changing regulatory environment and implementing these changes. They also asked Mr Ebanks to assess the OECD international tax agreement and explain how he expected it to affect the Cayman Islands. Finally MEPs asked for reactions to the EU’s tax haven list and its process of establishment, as well as regarding how other lists are established and how they view the Cayman Islands.


You can watch the hearing again here.


Background


The discussion follows-up on two public hearings of the FISC Subcommittee on the Pandora Papers: A public hearing on 'Tax avoidance and evasion in the Pandora Papers' in November 2021 and a public hearing on 'Exchange of information with jurisdictions appearing prominently in the Pandora papers (such as crown dependencies, British overseas territories and some US states)' in March 2022. These hearings and the discussion with Mr Ebanks will feed into the current work on an own-initiative report on the "Lessons learnt from the Pandora Papers and other revelations".