Bermuda has not signed onto Britain’s FACTA-like deal – Premier Cannonier

Bermuda Premier Craig Cannonier. PHOTO/Royal Gazette

Bermuda says it has not signed a tax avoidance treaty with Britain insisting that it would do nothing to jeopardize the island nation’s financial model or agreements signed in the past.

Premier Craig Cannonier told a news conference that that Bermuda had declined to sign the tax treaty during talks in London with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Cameron last week invited the leaders of Bermuda and 5 other territories including: The Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Turks & Caicos, Montserrat and Anguilla to London as he sought more transparency to end what he called the “scourge of tax evasion”.

But Cannonier, who led his One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) to power in the December general elections, told reporters that “at least up to the time I left” none of the 10 countries had signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.

The other countries at the talks were Gibraltar, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

Weekend reports out of London suggested the 10 countries had signed up to the deal during the meeting Prime Minister Cameron called ahead of a two-day G8 summit in Northern Ireland he hosted on Monday and Tuesday when leaders agreed new measures to clamp down on money launderers, illegal tax evaders and corporate tax avoiders. -(CMC)