Declaration on Joining the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Information pursuant to the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF MCAA)

Summary

This document is a formal record (procès-verbal of signature) from the OECD confirming that the Cayman Islands, through Duncan E. Nicol, Director of the Department for International Tax Cooperation (DITC), signed a Declaration on 26 November 2024 to join the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Information pursuant to the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF MCAA). This is an intergovernmental instrument: it records that the Cayman Islands' Competent Authority is now treated as a signatory to the CARF MCAA as of that date.

The document itself does not directly regulate private businesses or set out reporting procedures, forms, or deadlines for crypto-asset service providers. Instead, it establishes the international legal basis under which the Cayman Islands government commits to automatically exchange crypto-asset account information with other participating jurisdictions' tax authorities, consistent with the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. Implementation obligations for Cayman-based reporting crypto-asset service providers (such as due diligence and reporting to DITC) would be set out in separate domestic legislation or regulations giving effect to CARF, not in this signature record itself.

Compliance officers should treat this as confirmation that the Cayman Islands is now committed at the government level to CARF automatic exchange, signaling that domestic CARF reporting obligations for virtual asset/crypto-asset businesses are expected to follow or already be in train, but this particular document does not itself create operational compliance duties.

Deadlines

• 26 November 2024: Date on which the Cayman Islands' Competent Authority became a signatory to the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Information pursuant to the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF MCAA)