Financial Transparency Coalition

Bloomberg -- The U.K. and Liechtenstein agreed to a tax arrangement that allows British investors in the principality to declare their holdings voluntarily, providing a possible model for treaties seeking to combat tax havens.

I’m not going to get over-excited, I hope, but I think the new UK / Liechtenstein Tax Information Exchange Agreement moves information exchange into a new era. This deal is like no other Tax Information Exchange Agreement. Take this from the preamble:

The Government of the Principality of Liechtenstein and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (together “the Contracting Parties”) desiring to:

(a) regulate the exchange of information with respect to taxes between the Contracting Parties and facilitate tax cooperation and taxpayer assistance, and

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Bloomberg -- German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck lauded Liechtenstein’s cooperation on tax issues as an “important contribution,” a turnaround in relations between two governments that were locked in a dispute on tax evasion.

Assets managed in Liechtenstein fell almost a fifth in 2008, hurt by attacks against the principality's banking secrecy and the financial crisis, an official report published Wednesday said.