FEW references were made to Guernsey on BBC TV’s Panorama last night, which focused on so-called tax havens.

Much of Tax Me If You Can looked at Liechtenstein and there was significant comment on the Cayman Islands. ‘Guernsey was barely mentioned other than in passing, although they did discuss Jersey,’ said Fortis Reads Private Clients tax director Fran Snoding (pictured).

‘What is interesting, however, is that the section on Jersey included an interview with the financial secretary to the UK Treasury, who said that HM Revenue and Customs get all the information they need about bank deposits in Jersey and Guernsey.

‘The information is probably either obtained under last year’s Offshore Disclosure Facility, the recently-signed Tax Information Exchange Agreement or the EU Savings Tax Directive. The purpose of each of these is to obtain information about tax evaders and fraud, therefore there is nothing we should be fearful of as law-abiding individuals or as a community.’

That clearly demonstrated that Guernsey’s finance industry was transparent and cooperative, which is precisely what the programme was attempting to prove offshore jurisdictions were not, said Mr Snoding.