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<p>The Overseas Territories are separate jurisdictions and each has their own independent
supervisory authority responsible for ensuring their financial services meet regulatory
standards. The Overseas Territories are subject to assessment by the international
standard setter for anti-money laundering, the Financial Action Task Force. This looks
specifically at the effectiveness of each jurisdiction’s regimes. The Territories
are due their next assessments over the coming years and the results of these will
be publicly available.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In 2013, the Crown Dependencies and Overseas
Territories agreed to begin bilateral automatic exchange of financial information
for tax purposes with the UK in 2016, in respect of 2014 data. These were ground
breaking agreements and are expected to recoup over £1 billion of unpaid tax.</p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories also committed
in 2013 to be early adopters of the new global standard for automatic exchange, joining
the initiative launched by the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain and providing
a lead to other jurisdictions. Along with the UK, in October 2014 the Crown Dependencies
and Overseas Territories signed the legal agreements under which exchange will begin
with over 50 countries in 2017 and over 90 countries in 2018. These agreements, under
which a wide range of information concerning financial accounts of UK tax residents
will be passed to HMRC automatically each year, will significantly enhance the ability
of HMRC to tackle offshore evasion.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Monitoring of implementation
of the global standard of automatic tax information exchange will be undertaken in
due course by the Global Forum as requested by G20 Finance Ministers. Written assessments
of the extent to which Global Forum members meet the existing standard of tax information
exchange on request are publically available on the Global Forum’s website.</p><p>
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