The ongoing global initiatives around exchange of tax
information and publication of beneficial ownership information,
while ostensibly in pursuit of transparency, have their origins in
the need for the larger, richer countries to increase tax revenues,
and the perception that taxpayers are hiding assets abroad and out
of the tax authorities' reach. A lesser-reported factor in the
development of these initiatives is that advances in technology
have made feasible automatic exchange of information (AEOI) on a
global and multilateral basis, whereas only a few years ago the
costs would have been prohibitive.
The cost-benefit analysis of AEOI initiatives will no doubt be
debated for many years to come. When considering the impact on the
Caribbean region, however, two issues stand out. First, the
financial costs of compliance are disproportionate for smaller
jurisdictions, which must grapple with the complexities of
initiatives developed by the very largest and richest
