Bermuda's Economic Substance Act 2018 (ESA) and Economic
Substance Regulations 2018 (ESR) came into operation on 31 December
2018. The ESA was enacted in response to guidance published by the
European Code of Conduct Group (Business Taxation) (COCG) regarding
the manner in which the COCG will assess Bermuda's compliance
with the "economic substance" element of its "fair
taxation" criteria.
In June 2019, Bermuda's Minister of Finance (Minister)
published draft guidance notes: (i) to assist entities registered
in Bermuda to determine if they are within scope of the economic
substance requirements under the ESA and, if so, how to satisfy
them; and (ii) to provide guidance as to how the Registrar of
Companies (Registrar) will measure and assess the criteria for
meeting the requirements.
