New Economic Substance Regimes in the BVI, Cayman, Guernsey and Jersey receive OECD Support

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has concluded a review of recent economic substance changes to the tax regimes and legislation in each of our jurisdictions of the BVI, Cayman, Guernsey and Jersey and has confirmed that the domestic legal frameworks in each jurisdiction are in line with the relevant standard and are therefore “not harmful”. These latest positive endorsements follow the introduction of new substance legislation by the relevant authorities in each of our jurisdictions last year. The review was carried out by the OECD Forum on Harmful Tax practices.

It is pleasing to see that the domestic legal frameworks in each of our jurisdictions have been endorsed by the OECD and meet the required standards. This development is demonstrative of our home jurisdictions' willingness to cooperate with key global organisations in meeting developing global international standards.

The related statements issued by BVI Finance, Cayman Finance, Guernsey Government and Jersey Finance Limited, respectively, can be found here:

 BVI STATEMENT

CAYMAN STATEMENT

GUERNSEY STATEMENT

JERSEY STATEMENT

Mourant's global Economic Substance team is advising clients with (and service providers administering) relevant companies to help them comply with the new economic substance regimes in our jurisdictions, with a focus on checking the potential applicability of the new legislation to their companies and, where the new regime applies, testing their corporate governance and delegation arrangements, and advising and preparing for the filing of additional reporting information to the relevant tax authority.

If you require our assistance with these tasks, please let us know.