Senator Barack Obama has co-sponsored the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act. It identifies Jersey as one of 34 ‘offshore secrecy jurisdictions’ and sets out new powers for the US Treasury to set sanctions for tackling tax evasion. But Colin Powell, the Jersey Financial Services Commission chairman, said that the Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) between Jersey and the USA was likely to rule out sanctions from the US Treasury. ‘With the USA, there is a natural geographical affinity with the Caribbean,’ he said. ‘If they are going to use an offshore centre in terms of time zones and proximity they would tend to use the Caribbean. ‘If you are on the list, then I think there will be severe sanctions. There are a number of centres that are going to be quite excited about being on it.’
