MP Gauke: 33 Not Signed Up To Public Register

February 10, 2015

DavidGaukeMP(1)UK Financial Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke said he does not agree with the idea of putting Overseas Territories on a blacklist when “33 out of 34 OECD countries have still not signed up to a public register.”

The comments from Mr. Gauke –a  Conservative MP – follow after UK Opposition Leader Ed Miliband sent a letter to Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies saying that within 6 months of the election of Labour government, they will be required to produce a publicly accessible central register of beneficial ownership.

Mr Miliband’s letter said, “A Labour government will not allow this situation of delay and secrecy to continue. Labour will act on tax avoidance where the Tories will not.

“All UK Overseas Territories or Crown Dependencies will have to produce a publicly accessible central register of beneficial ownership within six months of the election of a Labour government.

“If any Overseas Territory or Crown Dependency does not meet this deadline, we will ask the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] to put them on the OECD’s tax haven blacklist.”

Answering a question from Labour MP Fiona O’Donnell in UK Parliament yesterday [Feb 9], Mr. Gauke [pictured] said, “We are still putting pressure on Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies, but all of them have signed up to the automatic exchange of information, which is a substantial breakthrough.

“I do not agree with the idea of putting all of them on a blacklist when France, Germany and the United States—indeed, 33 out of 34 OECD countries — have still not signed up to a public register. They are signed up, by and large, to a central register, but not yet to publishing it.”

Britain’s Chancellor George Osborne also responded to Mr Miliband’s statement, with the BBC quoting Mr Osborne as saying, “If you actually look at what he’s saying, he wants to blacklist every country of the OECD that doesn’t have these central registers.

“Britain is leading by example, it is having new central registers, it is insisting that its overseas territories transparently share information with us.

“But the Labour leader is simply not fit for office because he does not think through the consequences of his anti-business, anti-enterprise and anti-our partners abroad policies.”

Finance Minister Bob Richards has previously stated that Bermuda should not move to the new model of regulation until its adoption by Canada, the UK and USA as “to do so without simultaneous similar action by competing jurisdictions would put Bermuda at a significant competitive disadvantage and severely damage our economy.”

Read More About

Category: All, Business, News

Comments (2)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. LiarLiar says:

    Nothing but politics from Miliband. His image isn’t doing so well these days so he needs to make grand announcements.

    If he is threatening the OT with the blacklist then he has to do the same against places such as the US and Canada as they also do not have a register in place.

    It is the same for the Democrats in the US during election cycles. They promise to close tax loopholes and bring an end to the offshore financial centers. And after each and every election their threats are nothing but false promises designed to garner votes. The ironic thing is that the State of Delaware is one of the biggest secretive tax havens in the western hemisphere!

  2. Silence Do Good says:

    Grand scheme that only one country cares about.

    Well done.

    I bet they have a department full of administrators managing one on a country list setting policies an guidance documents.