Grenada’s legal and regulatory framework for the exchange of information for tax purposes was assessed by the Global Forum Peer Review Group as being sufficiently compliant with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD’s) standard to allow Grenada to graduate to phase two (2) of the review process. In an effort to enhance tax transparency and reduce harmful tax competition among jurisdictions, the international community, through the OECD, has launched an initiative to facilitate the exchange of information for tax purposes between contracting parties. The operational arm of the OECD for this initiative, the Global Forum, required jurisdictions to sign at least 12 tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs), at the OECD standard, with their significant trading partners to avoid being placed on a sanctions list. Grenada has successfully achieved this compliance standard with the signing of 27 relevant agreements, 14 of which are at the OECD standard. Signing 12 TIEAs was only the first step in the process. The Global Forum then facilitated an assessment of Grenada’s legal and regulatory infrastructure to facilitate the exchange of information with contracting parties. This review was conducted during October and November 2011 by assessors from the Global Forum and Grenada’s peer jurisdictions of Spain and Guernsey. The assessment team found that Grenada was fully or largely compliant with eight of the ten assessment criteria, one criterion was not applicable and the other was not compliant. The not compliant criterion was influenced by the fact that the legislation does not specifically require all offshore companies to retain reliable underlying accounting documents (vouchers) for all transactions for a period of at least five years. The findings of the assessment team were recently endorsed and confirmed by the Global Forum Peer Review Plenary in Madrid, Spain, during the period 23 – 25 May 2012. The Plenary’s endorsement and recommendation will now be sent to the Global Forum for ratification and publishing. Grenada was represented at the Madrid plenary by Mr Niguel Streete and Ms Marion Suit. The successful completion of this phase one (1) review is an important milestone in Grenada’s continued engagement with the international community as a credible, compliant and well regulated international financial centre. The rating of the Global Forum is internationally recognised as the gold standard for tax transparency compliance. Grenada now looks forward to its phase two (2) review which will be conducted during the second half of 2013. This review will assess the corrections made to any deficiencies in the phase I review and assess Grenada’s performance under its existing TIEAs and the administrative structure in place to facilitate such compliance. For further information please contact Mr Niguel Streete, Deputy Executive Director, GARFIN.