Put Gibraltar’s finance centre in the OECD BLACK LIST says Spain
Spanish irritation is expressed in an aritcle in El Pais
Spain wants the Gibraltar finance centre to be put on the OECD ‘black list’. This is because, according to the Spanish Treasury, Gibraltar continues to be “opaque, inaccessible and impenetrable.”
This is the thrust of a surprise attack on Gibraltar carried by the daily El Pais. Cooperation with Gibraltar has not advanced as regards fiscal and tax matters, says a spokesman of the Spanish Treasury.
And the information Gibraltar makes available is said to be limited and of little use. The Spanish Treasury thinks that other fiscal paradises like Jersey, those in the Caribbean ‘and even Andorra’ have provided more ¡information when it comes to fighting money laundering.
The question of financial services is one of the topics down for discussion in the much-trumpeted Trilateral Forum. But the Spanish tax department is evidently not satisfied, it is said.
However there is cooperation with police matters in the persecution of an offence, with much of the cooperation taking place in an “underhand” kind of way.
But when there is a request for information on companies, bank current accounts or lawyers offices, the cooperation disappears, a Spanish police source is quoted as saying. This is because this is an area prohibited even to the Gibraltar police, it is claimed.
