Gibraltar denies Spanish minister’s ‘uncooperative’ claim

THE Chief Minister has written to Spain’s Treasury Minister, Cristobal Montoro, after the Spanish minister criticised Gibraltar in June for being uncooperative when it comes to exchanging tax information.
The dispute started when Montoro stated that Gibraltar should have been listed as one of the 30 most uncooperative countries recently published by the European Commission.
The letter outlines Fabian Picardo’s wish for Gibraltar to have a formal tax information exchange agreement with Spain. According to the Chief Minister, Gibraltar has been attempting to make such an agreement since 2013, when, he claims, he invited Spanish officials to visit Gib to see for themselves Gibraltar’s commitment to international standards of tax information exchange.
He also points out that the Spanish government’s decision to cancel talks between Gibraltar, the UK and Spain in 2012 have not helped the matter, and further states that, “The Gibraltar Income Tax Office regularly receives requests from Spain under the EU Directive and responds to all such requests.”