When Britain assumed the presidency earlier this year of the G8, the grouping that brings together the world’s most powerful developed economies, it made clear that tax compliance would be one of its core priorities.
Although much of the rhetoric then and since has been dismissed as being for domestic political consumption by the UK’s austerity-weary electorate, it is becoming clear that the UK’s approach forms part of a much broader co-ordinated campaign that will change global tax structures. That is to say, what is now being discussed by a widening group of nations goes far beyond the initial concerns expressed by the UK about the countries that fall within its jurisdiction that provide offshore financial services.
What has become clear is that Prime Minister Cameron’s meeting in mid-June with the premiers of all of the UK’s overseas territories in the Caribbean plus Bermuda, was a part of a much broader approach intended eventually to end the practice whereby companies and individuals move their