En Voyage_Issue#11_Flickbook

Trust Corporation International
Staying ahead in an ever
changing world
Offshore structures need to adapt continuously in order to
comply with changes in tax and regulation. It is essential
that trust and corporate services providers keep a close
eye and, importantly, really understand the implications of
these changes so that structures they manage are kept up
to date and compliant in every respect.
Here, three members of Trust Corporation International,
one of Guernsey’s leading independent fiduciary and
corporate services providers, reflect on a few of the many
recent changes that have taken place and also look at
what we know currently lies ahead:
A clear view on transparency
Ivor Bisson, Global Tax Reporting
The recent decision by the UK
Parliament to compel the British
Overseas Territories to adopt public
registers detailing the beneficial
ownership of companies has reignited
the debate on the fundamental right to
privacy and how this should not be
confused with transparency.
It is now clear that the Crown
Dependencies, including Guernsey, are
not affected by this UK decision but this
is an issue which has understandably
moved quickly up the agenda of so
many of our clients.
Guernsey has for many years been at
the forefront in meeting the highest
international transparency obligations
in fighting, in particular financial crime.
Guernsey was an early adopter of the
OECD Common Reporting Standard
(“CRS”) in 2017 and there is now an
annual exchange of information with
authorities outside of Guernsey.
Our clients understand that the value of
their financial assets at the end of each
calendar year (and relevant income
received by them outside of their
country of tax residence) will
automatically be shared with their
home tax authority each year. This is
also an evolving area - for example, a
subtle amendment was made to the
OECD’s guidance in December 2017.
This extended the reporting
requirements for trusts to cover
situations where trustees grant loans
other than on commercial terms. It is
vital that we keep abreast of all of these
changes.
Confidentiality vs transparency - the right balance?
Lydia Essa, Director
Clients fully understand that
information exchange and transparency
are fundamental features of what we
now do and they are generally
accepting of it, but they will not tolerate
leaks of information. They also do not
expect disclosure to be disproportionate
or to undermine their fundamental
human right to privacy.
We already know that a publicly
accessible register of beneficial owners
of UK real estate will be available from
2021 – non-UK trusts may be exempt
from the requirements but this is not yet
clear. Clients continue to be
concerned that the right balance
between confidentiality and
transparency is achieved.
Our role now is to ensure that we have
sufficient in-house expertise to report
information in an accurate, timely
and proportionate way whilst always
ensuring that confidential client
data continues to be held securely
and processed in accordance with
the new Guernsey and EU Data
Protection legislation.
98 En Voyage | Aurigny’s Magazine