- Joined
- Dec 2008
- Messages
- 15,888
as usual, is dedicated to ensure that its clients are kept fully updated of important changes and therefore consider it important to communicate recent amendments in the BVI jurisdiction regarding the need to keep transparent and updated accounting records.
The BVI House of Assembly passed two “urgent” amendments to the below pieces of legislation related to financial sector:
1) Mutual Legal Assistance Tax Matters Act, 2003 (MLA)
2) Partnership Act 2006
In order to re-enforce the responsibility of BVI entities to keep and maintain accounting records readily available upon request.
We would like you to be prepared and ready to meet new requirements.
Details of the amendments:
Amendment to MLA
The Amendment to the MLA includes two fundamental changes:
(i) to widen the scope of the MLA, and
(ii) to provide clarification for BVI Business Companies on the type of “records and underlying documentation” that are to be maintained.
With regard to the first amendment, it would further allow the jurisdiction to provide automatic and spontaneous information exchange in addition to the exchange of information upon request, which will also facilitate the implementation of the FATCA Agreements with USA and UK.
The second amendment was proposed since The BVI's Peer Review by the Global Forum last Autumn 2013 recommended that BVI legislation should specify exactly what type of records and underlying documentation are required to be maintained by the BVI BCs.
The wording for the amendment (S. 5A) is as follows:
© “records and underlying documentation” includes accounts in relation to
(i) all sums of money received and expended by the company and the matters in respect of which the receipt and expenditure takes place;
(ii) all sales and purchases of goods by the company; and
(iii) the assets and liabilities of the company.”
In addition Section 5(6) was amended as follows:
“A person who, without lawful or reasonable excuse, fails to comply with
(a) a notice issued to him under subsection (1), or
(b) any request made of him by the Authority in exercise of any power pursuant to section 3(4) commits an offence and is liable
(i) on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both, or
(ii) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or both.”
Amendment to Partnership Act, 2006
An amendment was passed for section 81 of the Partnership Act, 2006, as amended in 2012. This amendment is needed now to address an outstanding issue in BVI's Peer Review Report in relation to bringing clarity to the Limited Partnerships to specify the type of records and underlying documentation that ought to be maintained. As a result a similar amendment was made in the Partnership Act, 2006 to accommodate this change.
