Turks and Caicos Islands
This report analyses the implementation of the AEOI Standard in the Turks and Caicos Islands with respect to the requirements of the AEOI Terms of Reference. It assesses both the legal frameworks put in place to implement the AEOI Standard and the effectiveness of the implementation of the AEOI Standard in practice.
The methodology used for the peer reviews and that therefore underpins this report is outlined in Chapter 2.
Overall findings
AEOI legal framework
The Turks and Caicos Islands’ legal framework implementing the AEOI Standard is in place but needs improvement in order to be fully consistent with the requirements of the AEOI Terms of Reference. While the Turks and Caicos Islands’ international legal framework to exchange the information with all of the Turks and Caicos Islands’ Interested Appropriate Partners (CR2) is consistent with the requirements, its domestic legislative framework requiring Reporting Financial Institutions to conduct the due diligence and reporting procedures has deficiencies in areas significant to the proper functioning of elements of the AEOI Standard. More specifically, the Turks and Caicos Islands provides for a jurisdiction-specific Excluded Account that is not in accordance with the requirements and its legislative framework does not ensure that valid self-certifications are always obtained for New Accounts.
Overall determination on the legal framework: In Place But Needs Improvement
Effectiveness of AEOI in practice
The Turks and Caicos Islands’ implementation of the AEOI Standard is not compliant with the requirements of the AEOI Terms of Reference to ensure the effectiveness of the AEOI Standard in practice. While the Turks and Caicos Islands is on track with respect to exchanging the information in an effective and timely manner (CR2), there are fundamental issues with respect to ensuring that Reporting Financial Institutions correctly conduct the due diligence and reporting procedures (CR1).
Overall rating in relation to the effectiveness in practice: Non-Compliant
General context
The Turks and Caicos Islands commenced exchanges under the AEOI Standard in 2017 and exchanges information on a non-reciprocal basis (i.e. the Turks and Caicos Islands sends but does not receive information).
In order to provide for Reporting Financial Institutions to collect and report the information to be exchanged, the Turks and Caicos Islands:
amended the Tax Information (Exchange and Mutual Administrative Assistance) Ordinance;
introduced the Tax Information (Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information and the Common Reporting Standard) Order 2016, as amended in 2017;
introduced the International Tax Compliance Regulations 2016, as amended in May 2017; and
Under this framework Reporting Financial Institutions were required to commence the due diligence procedures in relation to New Accounts from 1 January 2016. With respect to Preexisting Accounts, Reporting Financial Institutions were required to complete the due diligence procedures on High Value Individual Accounts by 31 December 2016 and on Lower Value Individual Accounts and Entity Accounts by 31 December 2017.
With respect to the exchange of information under the AEOI Standard, the Turks and Caicos Islands:
has the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in place1 and activated the associated CRS Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement in time for exchanges in 2018; and
put in place two bilateral agreements.2
Table 1 sets out the number of Financial Institutions in the Turks and Caicos Islands that reported information on Financial Accounts in 2021 as defined in the AEOI Standard (essentially because they maintained Financial Accounts for Account Holders, or that were related to Controlling Persons, resident in a Reportable Jurisdiction). It also sets out the number of Financial Accounts that they reported in 2021. In this regard, it should be noted that the Turks and Caicos Islands states that it requires the reporting of Financial Accounts held by all non-residents and some accounts may be required to be reported more than once (e.g. jointly held accounts or accounts with multiple related Controlling Persons), which is reflected in the figures below. These figures provide key contextual information to the development and implementation of the Turks and Caicos Islands’ administrative compliance strategy, which is analysed in the subsequent sections of this report.
Table 2 sets out the number of exchange partners to which information was successfully sent by the Turks and Caicos Islands in the past few years (including where the necessary frameworks were in place, containing an obligation on Reporting Financial Institutions to report information, but no relevant Reportable Accounts were identified). These figures provide key contextual information in relation to the Turks and Caicos Islands’ exchanges in practice, which is also analysed in subsequent sections of this report.
The Turks and Caicos Islands does not operate an income or corporate income tax regime. As such, there currently exists no central taxation or revenue authority within the Turks and Caicos Islands. In order to provide for the effective implementation of the AEOI Standard, in the Turks and Caicos Islands:
the Revenue Department and the Exchange of Information Unit, both housed in the Ministry of Finance, and the Financial Services Commission (the authority responsible for regulating all financial services businesses operating in or from the Turks and Caicos Islands) have the responsibility to ensure the effective implementation of the due diligence and reporting obligations by Reporting Financial Institutions. The Exchange of Information Unit (the Competent Authority) is responsible for sending information to the Turks and Caicos Islands’ exchange partners;
technical solutions necessary to receive and validate the information reported by Reporting Financial Institutions were put in place by requiring all Reporting Financial Institutions to register in order to access the Automatic Exchange of Information portal and report information to the TCA, including filing nil returns. This portal allows for the validation of the information reported by the Reporting Financial Institutions against the XML Schema; and
the Common Transmission System (CTS) is used for the exchange of the information, along with the associated file preparation and encryption requirements.
It should be noted that the review of the Turks and Caicos Islands’ legal frameworks implementing the AEOI Standard concluded with the determination that the Turks and Caicos Islands’ domestic legal framework is In Place But Needs Improvement and its international legal framework is In Place. This has been taken into account when reviewing the effectiveness of the Turks and Caicos Islands’ implementation of the AEOI Standard in practice and where particular identified gaps in the Turks and Caicos Islands’ legal frameworks directly impact its implementation in practice, these are mentioned below.
Findings and conclusions on the legal frameworks
The detailed findings and conclusions on the AEOI legal frameworks for the Turks and Caicos Islands are below, organised per Core Requirement (CR) and then per sub-requirement (SR) as extracted from the AEOI Terms of Reference (see Annex C).
CR1 Domestic legal framework: Jurisdictions should have a domestic legislative framework in place that requires all Reporting Financial Institutions to conduct the due diligence and reporting procedures in the CRS, and that provides for the effective implementation of the CRS as set out therein.
Determination: In Place But Needs Improvement
The Turks and Caicos Islands’ domestic legislative framework is in place and contains most of the key aspects of the CRS and its Commentary requiring Reporting Financial Institutions to conduct the due diligence and reporting procedures, but it needs improvement in relation to the scope of Financial Accounts required to be reported (SR 1.2) and the framework to enforce the requirements (SR 1.4). More specifically, the Turks and Caicos Islands provides for a jurisdiction-specific Excluded Account that is not in accordance with the requirements and does not provide for specific measures to ensure that valid self-certifications are always obtained for New Accounts.
SR 1.1 Jurisdictions should define the scope of Reporting Financial Institutions consistently with the CRS.
The Turks and Caicos Islands has defined the scope of Reporting Financial Institutions in its domestic legislative framework in accordance with the CRS and its Commentary.
SR 1.2 Jurisdictions should define the scope of Financial Accounts and Reportable Accounts consistently with the CRS and incorporate the due diligence procedures to identify them.
The Turks and Caicos Islands has defined the scope of the Financial Accounts that are required to be reported in its domestic legislative framework and incorporated the due diligence procedures that must be applied to identify them in a manner that is largely consistent with the CRS and its Commentary. However, a deficiency has been identified. More specifically the Turks and Caicos Islands has provided for a jurisdiction-specific Excluded Account that does not meet the requirements. The cope of Financial Accounts, including the provision of Excluded Accounts, is material to the proper functioning of the AEOI Standard.
The Turks and Caicos Islands should amend its domestic legislative framework to remove Dormant Accounts from its jurisdiction-specific list of Excluded Accounts as they do not meet the requirements of the AEOI Standard, as no threshold for the exclusion has been set as required.
SR 1.3 Jurisdictions should incorporate the reporting requirements contained in Section I of the CRS into their domestic legislative framework.
The Turks and Caicos Islands has incorporated the reporting requirements in its domestic legislative framework in accordance with the CRS and its Commentary.
SR 1.4 Jurisdictions should have a legislative framework in place that allows for the enforcement of the requirements of the CRS in practice.
The Turks and Caicos Islands has a legislative framework in place to enforce the requirements in a manner that is largely consistent with the CRS and its Commentary. However, a deficiency has been identified. More specifically, the Turks and Caicos Islands’ legislative framework permits accounts to be reported as undocumented when self-certifications are not obtained and/or validated after the opening of the account, rather than include measures to ensure valid self-certifications are always obtained as required. This is a key element of the required enforcement framework and is therefore material to the proper functioning of the AEOI Standard.
The Turks and Caicos Islands should amend its domestic legislative framework to include strong measures to ensure that valid self-certifications are always obtained for New Accounts and, more specifically, in the limited circumstances where a valid self-certification is permitted to be obtained after the opening of a New Account.
CR2 International legal framework: Jurisdictions should have exchange relationships in effect with all Interested Appropriate Partners as committed to and that provide for the exchange of information in accordance with the Model CAA.
The Turks and Caicos Islands’ international legal framework to exchange the information is in place, is consistent with the Model CAA and its Commentary and provides for exchange with all of the Turks and Caicos Islands’ Interested Appropriate Partners (i.e. all jurisdictions that are interested in receiving information from the Turks and Caicos Islands and that meet the required standard in relation to confidentiality and data safeguards) (SRs 2.1 – 2.3).
SR 2.1 Jurisdictions should have exchange agreements in effect with all Interested Appropriate Partners that permit the automatic exchange of CRS information.
The Turks and Caicos Islands has exchange agreements that permit the automatic exchange of CRS information in effect with all its Interested Appropriate Partners.
SR 2.2 Such an exchange agreement should be put in place without undue delay, following the receipt of an expression of interest from an Interested Appropriate Partner.
The Turks and Caicos Islands put in place its exchange agreements without undue delay.
SR 2.3 Jurisdictions should ensure that the exchange agreements in effect provide for the exchange of information in accordance with the requirements of the Model CAA.
The Turks and Caicos Islands’ exchange agreements provide for the exchange of information in accordance with the requirements of the Model CAA.
Assessed jurisdiction’s comments on the assessment of its legal frameworks
The Turks and Caicos Islands wishes to acknowledge the work of the Assessment Team and Experts reviewing the AEOI standard for compliance, and thank them for their assistance and cooperation. It was not a simple exercise and proved to be quite costly for a small jurisdiction to implement in terms of administration, technology and legislation. The capacity in terms of resources is still expanding with continuous efforts being made to fall within the boundaries of the standard.
The Turks and Caicos Islands has recently implemented a new AEOI Reporting Tool with greater efficiency and reporting capabilities. For those partner jurisdictions that had some difficulty with previous years’ submissions, we will happily review the files and re-submit.
Findings and conclusions in relation to effectiveness in practice
The detailed findings and conclusions in relation to effectiveness in practice of AEOI for the Turks and Caicos Islands are below, organised per Core Requirement (CR) and then per sub-requirement (SR) as extracted from the AEOI Terms of Reference (see Annex C).
CR1 Effectiveness in practice: Jurisdictions should ensure that in practice Reporting Financial Institutions correctly implement the due diligence and reporting procedures, which includes a requirement for jurisdictions to have in place an administrative framework to ensure the effective implementation of the CRS.
The Turks and Caicos Islands’ implementation of the AEOI Standard is non-compliant with respect to ensuring that Reporting Financial Institutions are correctly conducting the due diligence and reporting procedures. More specifically, there are fundamental issues in relation to the Turks and Caicos Islands ensuring effectiveness in a domestic context, such as through having an effective administrative compliance framework and related procedures (SR 1.5), and collaborating with its exchange partners to ensure effectiveness (SR 1.6). The Turks and Caicos Islands should continue its implementation process to ensure its effectiveness, including by addressing the recommendations made.
SR 1.5 Jurisdictions should ensure that in practice Reporting Financial Institutions identify the Financial Accounts they maintain, identify the Reportable Accounts among those Financial Accounts, as well as their Account Holders, and where relevant Controlling Persons, by correctly conducting the due diligence procedures and collect and report the required information with respect to each Reportable Account. This includes having in place:
an effective administrative compliance framework to ensure the effective implementation of, and compliance with, the CRS. This framework should:
be based on a strategy that facilitates compliance by Reporting Financial Institutions and which is informed by a risk assessment in respect of the effective implementation of the CRS that takes into account relevant information sources (including third party sources);
include procedures to ensure that Financial Institutions correctly apply the definitions of Reporting Financial Institutions and Non-Reporting Financial Institutions;
include procedures to periodically verify Reporting Financial Institutions’ compliance, conducted by authorities that have adequate powers with respect to the reviewed Reporting Financial Institutions, with procedures to access the records they maintain; and
effective procedures to ensure that Financial Institutions, persons or intermediaries do not circumvent the due diligence and reporting procedures;
effective enforcement mechanisms to address non-compliance by Reporting Financial Institutions;
strong measures to ensure that valid self-certifications are always obtained for New Accounts;
effective procedures to ensure that each, or each type of, jurisdiction-specific Non-Reporting Financial Institution and Excluded Account continue to present a low risk of being used to evade tax; and
effective procedures to follow up with a Reporting Financial Institution when undocumented accounts are reported in order to establish the reasons why such information is being reported.
In order to ensure that Reporting Financial Institutions correctly conduct the due diligence and reporting procedures, the Turks and Caicos implemented some of the requirements in accordance with expectations. However, fundamental issues were identified. The key findings were as follows:
While the Turks and Caicos Islands has made progress in developing its compliance strategy to ensure that Financial Institutions have correctly implemented the requirements under the AEOI Standard in practice, it still does not have a clear overarching strategy, based on a risk assessment and informed by a range of information sources. This includes a lack of documented procedures to review and verify compliance. Furthermore, in practice, no dedicated AEOI-related compliance activities have yet been undertaken.
While the Turks and Caicos Islands does compare the lists from other regulatory bodies and the Foreign Financial Institution list for FATCA purposes with the list of Financial Institutions that have registered with the AEOI portal to identify its population of Reporting Financial Institutions, it does not have further procedures to identify non-regulated entities that are Financial Institutions for the purposes of the AEOI Standard. Furthermore, it has not taken action to ensure that Reporting Financial Institutions have classified themselves correctly and are reporting information as required.
The Turks and Caicos Islands has allocated the necessary resources, including technical resource, and putting in place the organisational frameworks and compliance strategies to ensure that Reporting Financial Institutions correctly conduct the due diligence and reporting procedures. With respect to human resources, there are three staff within the Exchange of Information Unit and five staff within the Financial Services Commission assigned to monitor and ensure compliance by Reporting Financial Institutions. At a technical level, in 2019, the Turks and Caicos Islands determined that a comprehensive reporting tool was required. A new AEOI portal was implemented in 2020, which allows Reporting Financial Institutions to report their Reportable Accounts, or file nil returns, with the Exchange of Information Unit. The Exchange of Information Unit will use this portal as a compliance tool to ensure that Reporting Financial Institutions correctly conduct the due diligence and reporting procedures.
The Turks and Caicos Islands has not been able to demonstrate how it verifies compliance by Reporting Financial Institutions, such as through desk-based checks or in-depth reviews that include the inspection of records help by Reporting Financial Institutions, nor how it effectively addresses cases of non-compliance. Furthermore, the Turks and Caicos Islands has also not been able to demonstrate that it has procedures in place to ensure valid self-certifications are obtained.
The Turks and Caicos Islands does not have procedures to follow up with Reporting Financial Institutions when undocumented accounts are reported, nor does it have procedures to address circumvention of the due diligence and reporting procedures by Financial Institutions, persons or intermediaries.
The Turks and Caicos Islands has one category of jurisdiction-specific Excluded Account, which was found to not meet the requirements. Reference is made to the recommendation issued when reviewing the Turks and Caicos Island’s legal frameworks. The Turks and Caicos Islands has no other jurisdiction-specific Non-Reporting Financial Institutions or Excluded Accounts.
Table 3 provides a summary of the specific activities undertaken, or that are planned to be undertaken, in relation to each of the key parts of the framework described above.
The Turks and Caicos Islands was not able to confirm that it collects and monitors information on the proportion of Financial Accounts that are reported that include information on the Tax Identification Numbers or dates of birth with respect to the individuals associated with them. These data points are key to exchange partners to effectively utilise the information and are important to developing an effective compliance strategy to ensure the AEOI Standard is being effectively implemented. The Turks and Caicos Islands was also not able to confirm that it collects and monitors information on the number of undocumented accounts reported by its Reporting Financial Institutions. This information is crucial to implementing the requirement to follow up on undocumented accounts.
More generally, though, many of the exchange partners that received a significant number of records from the Turks and Caicos Islands indicated that they achieved a success rate when matching the information received from the Turks and Caicos Islands with their taxpayer database that was broadly equivalent to, or better than, what they usually achieve.
Based on these findings it was concluded that the Turks and Caicos Islands is not meeting expectations in ensuring that Reporting Financial Institutions correctly conduct the due diligence and reporting procedures, including by having in place the required administrative compliance framework and related procedures. More specifically, fundamental issues have been identified, including with respect to implementing a comprehensive compliance strategy in order to address issues of non-compliance by Reporting Financial Institutions and carrying out verification and enforcement activities. The Turks and Caicos Islands should continue its implementation process accordingly, including by addressing the recommendations made.
The Turks and Caicos Islands should further develop and implement an effective documented overarching compliance plan, informed by a risk assessment, to underpin its compliance activities.
The Turks and Caicos Islands should develop and implement effective procedures to identify its population of Reporting Financial Institutions, specifically including non-regulated entities that are Financial Institutions for the purposes of the AEOI Standard.
The Turks and Caicos Islands should ensure it has effective enforcement mechanisms to address non-compliance by Reporting Financial Institutions, including appropriate penalties and sanctions applicable to non-compliance with any of the obligations (e.g. due diligence, reporting, record keeping), and takes enforcement activities where non-compliance is identified.
The Turks and Caicos Islands should implement systems to collect and monitor information on the reporting of Tax Identification Numbers, dates of birth and undocumented accounts, to inform its compliance strategy.
The Turks and Caicos Islands should further establish and implement a clearly defined procedure to monitor and verify whether self-certifications have been obtained as required.
The Turks and Caicos Islands should put in place a clearly defined policy that, where circumvention is identified, action is taken to address it.
The Turks and Caicos Islands should further develop and implement a clearly defined policy to follow up where undocumented accounts are reported by the Reporting Financial Institutions.
SR 1.6 Jurisdictions should collaborate on compliance and enforcement. This requires jurisdictions to:
use all appropriate measures available under the jurisdiction’s domestic law to address errors or non-compliance notified to the jurisdiction by an exchange partner; and
have in place effective procedures to notify an exchange partner of errors that may have led to incomplete or incorrect information reporting or non-compliance with the due diligence or reporting procedures by a Reporting Financial Institution in the jurisdiction of the exchange partner.
It should be noted that, as the Turks and Caicos Islands exchanges information on a non-reciprocal basis and does not therefore receive information, it is not required to have in place procedures to notify its exchange partners. SR 1.6 b) has therefore not been assessed in this case.
The Turks and Caicos Islands has an understanding of its obligation to collaborate on compliance and enforcement in relation to issues notified to them (i.e. under Section 4 of the MCAA or equivalent). While no such notifications have yet been received, it has also not yet developed the necessary systems and procedures to be ready to process them as required.
Based on these findings it was concluded that the Turks and Caicos Islands is partially meeting expectations in relation to collaborating with its exchange partners to ensure that Reporting Financial Institutions correctly conduct the due diligence and reporting procedures. More specifically, significant issues have been identified, including with respect to a lack of a documented procedure in cases where notifications are received from an exchange partner. The Turks and Caicos Islands should continue its implementation process accordingly, including by addressing the recommendations made.
The Turks and Caicos Islands should put in place documented procedures to address errors or non-compliance notified by an exchange partner.
CR2 Effectiveness in practice: Jurisdictions should exchange the information effectively in practice, in a timely manner, including by sorting, preparing, validating and transmitting it in accordance with the AEOI Standard.
The Turks and Caicos Islands’ implementation of the AEOI Standard is on track with respect to exchanging the information effectively in practice, including in relation to correctly transmitting the information in a timely manner (SRs 2.5 – 2.7) and providing corrections, amendments or additions to the information (SR 2.9). The requirements in relation to the receipt of the information (SR 2.8) have not been assessed as the Turks and Caicos Islands exchanges information non-reciprocally, so does not receive information. While there are still significant issues with respect to sorting, preparing and validating the information (SR 2.4), the Turks and Caicos Islands has shown improvement over time and is encouraged to continue its implementation process accordingly, to ensure its ongoing effectiveness.
SR 2.4 Jurisdictions should sort, prepare and validate the information in accordance with the CRS XML Schema and the associated requirements in the CRS XML Schema User Guide and the File Error and Correction-related validations in the Status Message User Guide (i.e. the 50000 and 80000 range).
Seven exchange partners highlighted particular issues with respect to preparation and format of the information sent by the Turks and Caicos Islands (representing 10% of its partners). These generally related to errors of file validation (i.e. failed signature check) and record validation causing rejection of files. More generally, six (or 9%) of the Turks and Caicos Islands’ exchange partners reported rejecting more than 25% of files received, of which one partner reported rejecting more than 50% of files received, due to the technical requirements not being met. This is a relatively high amount when compared to other jurisdictions, although it has reduced over time. It was noted that the Turks and Caicos Islands has still not yet addressed some of the issues, including some that arose some time ago. However, within the scope of developing a new AEOI portal in 2020, the Turks and Caicos Islands has reviewed its systems and procedures for sorting, preparing and validating the information to ensure it meets the requirements of the AEOI Standard. These issues should therefore be addressed for future exchange periods.
Based on these findings it was concluded that the Turks and Caicos Islands is partially meeting expectations in relation to sorting, preparing and validating the information. More specifically, significant issues have been identified, including with respect to file and record validation and working with exchange partners to address the issues raised. The Turks and Caicos Islands should continue its implementation process accordingly, including by addressing the recommendation made.
The Turks and Caicos Islands should continue to work with its exchange partners to address the issues raised.
SR 2.5 Jurisdictions should agree and use, with each exchange partner, transmission methods that meet appropriate minimum standards to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the data throughout the transmission, including its encryption to a minimum secure standard.
In order to put in place an agreed transmission method that meets appropriate minimum standards in confidentiality, integrity of the data and encryption for use with each of its exchange partners, the Turks and Caicos Islands linked to the Common Transmission System.
Based on these findings it was concluded that the Turks and Caicos Islands is fully meeting expectations in relation to agreeing and using appropriate transmission methods with each of its partners. The Turks and Caicos Islands is encouraged to continue to ensure the ongoing effectiveness of its implementation.
SR 2.6 Jurisdictions should carry out all exchanges annually within nine months of the end of the calendar year to which the information relates.
Four exchange partners highlighted delays in the sending of information by the Turks and Caicos Islands (representing 6% of its partners). This represents a relatively high proportion of exchange partners, although it has improved significantly over time. It was noted that the development of a new AEOI portal in 2020 has resolved many of the previous concerns. However, the Turks and Caicos Islands was still significantly more delayed in sending information than other Assessed Jurisdictions. Furthermore, one partner stated that the information that should have been sent for Tax Year 2018 to 2020 has still not been received. The Turks and Caicos Islands explained that it was unable to send information in 2019 due to technical difficulties with its AEOI portal and that it is not possible to send information from prior periods. As mentioned above, a new AEOI portal was developed in 2020 and the Turks and Caicos Islands sent information to most of its exchange partners in 2020 and to all of its exchange partners in 2021.
Based on these findings it was concluded that, overall, the Turks and Caicos Islands is meeting expectations in relation to exchanging information in a timely manner. It was also noted that there is room for improvement with respect to sending information to all of its partners in a timely manner. The Turks and Caicos Islands is encouraged to continue to ensure the ongoing effectiveness of its implementation including in relation to the area highlighted.
The Turks and Caicos Islands should ensure that it sends information to all of its exchange partners in a timely manner.
SR 2.7 Jurisdictions should send the information in accordance with the agreed transmission methods and encryption standards.
Feedback from Turks and Caicos Islands’ exchange partners did not raise any concerns with respect to Turks and Caicos Islands’ use of the agreed transmission methods and therefore with Turks and Caicos Islands’ implementation of this requirement.
Based on these findings it was concluded that Turks and Caicos Islands is fully meeting expectations in relation to sending the information in accordance with the agreed transmission methods and encryption standards. Turks and Caicos Islands is encouraged to continue to ensure the ongoing effectiveness of its implementation.
SR 2.8 Jurisdictions should have the systems in place to receive information and, once it has been received, should send a status message to the sending jurisdictions in accordance with the CRS Status Message XML Schema and the related User Guide.
It should be noted that as the Turks and Caicos Islands exchanges information on a non-reciprocal basis and does not therefore receive information, it is not required to have in place systems to receive the information and provide status messages. SR 2.8 has therefore not been assessed in this case.
SR 2.9 Jurisdictions should respond to a notification from an exchange partner as referred to in Section 4 of the Model CAA (which may include Status Messages) in accordance with the timelines set out in the Commentary to Section 4 of the Model CAA. In all other cases, jurisdictions should send corrected, amended or additional information received from a Reporting Financial Institution as soon as possible after it has been received.
The Turks and Caicos Islands appears ready to respond to notifications and to provide corrected, amended or additional information in a timely manner and no such concerns were raised by the Turks and Caicos Islands’ exchange partners and therefore with respect to the Turks and Caicos Islands’ implementation of these requirements.
Based on these findings it was concluded that the Turks and Caicos Islands appears to be meeting expectations in relation to responding to notifications from exchange partners and the sending of corrected, amended or additional information. Turks and Caicos Islands is encouraged to continue to ensure the ongoing effectiveness of its implementation.
Assessed jurisdiction’s comments on the assessment of effectiveness in practice
Turks and Caicos Islands is pleased to be a committed partner in the exchange of information for tax purposes under the standard and is making a concerted effort to improve the processes and procedures in line with the standard on an equal footing. Resource challenges do exist with capacity, funding, technology and human resource administration. Reforms are ongoing to mitigate against risk and correct all deficiencies to adhere to all elements of the standard with automatic exchange.
Turks and Caicos Islands thanks the Secretariat and its teams of AEOI committees for the engagement and guidance with this AEOI processes. Additionally, TCI thanks its exchange partners for the support and cooperation. The TCI level of structure and organisation may not be comprehensive compared to a developed country’s regime, however TCI made significant investment as a developing country to meet the exchange aim.