Govt releases full text of tax treaty

The Gibraltar Government last night published the full text of the tax treaty between Gibraltar and Spain.

Prior to releasing the document, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo wrote to Adolfo Canepa, the Speaker of Parliament, providing him with a copy of the agreed text.

The government also issued an explanatory note alongside the text.

In the UK, the Minister for Europe will now also send a copy of the signed Treaty to the House of Commons.

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs has also provided copies of the Tax Treaty between to relevant Spanish parliamentarians.

“I am very pleased to now be able to publish the agreed text of the Tax Treaty agreed between Spain and Gibraltar,” Mr Picardo said.

“Publication will enable potentially affected tax payers to understand how best to structure their affairs and regularise their positions going forward.”

The Chief Minister also recorded a video explainer of the main issues in the Tax Treaty.

This is available on the Government's social media sites.

In it, he outlines the key elements of the treaty and highlights some of the wider issues it resolves.

“This is probably one of the only silver linings that Brexit has and that is that we have been able to sit down with Spain as a result of Brexit and negotiate things that Spain has been resistant in negotiating with us before…” he said.

“What we have achieved is that finally Spain and Gibraltar have an agreement on taxation and this will take the whip hand away from Spain, who will no longer be able to argue that Gibraltar fails to cooperate on matters of taxation.”

“We know that this will lead to Gibraltar’s removal from Spanish blacklists because that’s what the Spanish have promised it will do.”

“We don’t trust them, so we have retained the ability to terminate the agreement if they don’t deliver but we already know that by doing this we demonstrate that we have an agreement for exchange of information with Spain, an agreement for tax cooperation with Spain and they will find it very difficult indeed to now make the contrary argument internationally.”

Mr Picardo reiterated the Gibraltar Government’s position that the tax treaty was good for Gibraltar.

“It protects Gibraltar as a separate and autonomous tax jurisdiction,” he said.

“It protects and recognises the concept of the Gibraltarian and in particular it recognises the Gibraltarian Status Act, which means that not only is Spain recognising the act of our Parliament which designates Gibraltarians, it is recognising that we have a Parliament with separate legislative function and power.”