Guernsey’s international, trust structuring work still comes from London
Today, as the scrutiny placed on high net worth individuals and their cross-border tax arrangements reaches ever greater heights, and as information sharing agreements abound, Guernsey is an international financial centre that private clients want to be associated with.
Flight to quality as reputational damage has impacted parts of the industry
An advisor locally says: “I believe clients are looking at their own reputational issues these days, and they want to partner with a jurisdiction that conducts business to high standards. Guernsey is well regulated, and in the past, that’s been burdensome and expensive. However over the last couple of years as reputational damage has become more visible, we have seen more of a flight to quality, both by clients and by their advisers. Marcus Leese, a partner with the law firm Ogier in Guernsey agrees, “We were laughed at by a lot of the other offshore centres but it has proved to be the correct position.
Guernsey has also had legislation in place since 2000 that obliges all beneficial owners of Guernsey companies, and other legal persons, to be properly identified and recorded by regulated corporate service providers, and is one of only a handful of jurisdictions with such measures in place.
Strong reporting programmes as regulations increase proves a necessity
Helen Green, a director at Saffery Trust, says: “Tax information exchange agreements and inter-governmental agreements, in combination with US FATCA, UK FATCA, Base Erosion and Profits Shifting and Diverted Profits Tax and the Common Reporting Standard, mean that revenue from entities needs a strong reporting programme for compliance.”
