FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

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Today Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill signed a new agreement with the Isle of Man that will allow for exchange of information on tax matters between the United States and the Isle of Man. The agreement was signed by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and the Honorable Allan Bell, Member of the House of Keys, Minister for the Treasury of the Isle of Man.
 
At the signing ceremony, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill delivered the following remarks:

I would like to thank you all for being here today and welcome our friends from the Isle of Man, especially the Honorable Allan Bell, Minister for the Treasury of the Isle of Man. I also want to extend a very warm welcome to Chief Financial Officer Mary Williams.

The United States and the Isle of Man already have a close and cooperative relationship on law enforcement matters. Today cooperation between governments is more important than ever before. We greatly value the cooperation of Isle of Man, particularly now as we work to ensure that no safe haven exists anywhere in the world for the funds associated with illicit activities, including terrorism, money laundering, and tax evasion.
 
I have spoken on numerous occasions about our obligation to enforce our tax laws, because failing to do so undermines the confidence of honest taxpayers in the fairness of our tax system. Access to needed information is vital to our efforts to ensure enforcement of our laws.
 
This new tax information exchange agreement is an important development, and further demonstrates the commitment of the Isle of Man to cooperating with the United States on law enforcement matters and to upholding international standards in this area.  We look forward to continuing to strengthen the ties between us.

As many of you know, last summer I made a public commitment in Congressional testimony, to expand our network of tax information exchange relationships. The significant progress we have made toward that goal, with recent agreements with the Cayman Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Guernsey, demonstrates the depth of our commitment.

Today's agreement demonstrates our commitment to securing the cooperation of our neighbors around the world. We will continue to work vigorously to improve our tax information exchange relationships, and I look forward to gathering here again in the coming weeks to announce additional agreements with other countries.

Related Documents:

• Text of Agreement
• News Release from the Isle of Man