[OffshorePrivacy]

New Zealand Signs TIEA With Gibraltar

Revenue Minister Peter Dunne has announced that New Zealand has signed a tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) with Gibraltar at a ceremony in London.

The agreement provides for full exchange of information on civil and criminal tax matters between the two jurisdictions on request. It is wide ranging and includes:

* information regarding the ownership of companies, partnerships, trusts, foundations, "Anstalten" and other persons, including ownership information on all such persons in an ownership chain;
* in the case of trusts, information on settlors, trustees, beneficiaries, and protectors; and
* in the case of foundations, information on founders, members of the foundation council, and beneficiaries.

Requests need to be accompanied by basic supporting information and require that the requested party make a reasonable effort to obtain information not already in its possession, subject to any expenses being borne by the applicant.

"Recent months have seen a flurry of TIEA signings internationally, as low-tax offshore financial centers seek to achieve a sufficient number of TIEAs to allow them to be seen as meeting the OECD's standards for transparency and information exchange," Dunne said. The new TIEA will come into force once each country has given legal effect to it.

[OffshorePrivacy]

Germany, Gibraltar Sign TIEA

On August 13, Germany and Gibraltar signed a tax information exchange agreement (TIEA), which the German Finance Ministry has described as being part of an international crackdown on tax evasion.

The TIEA will, according to a statement issued by the ministry, will allow German authorities to gain access to information they feel is necessary to enforce German tax law. The agreement will also allow Germany to seek any older information held by Gibraltar’s authorities for use in criminal tax proceedings. The statement goes on to say that the ministry believes the agreement conforms to OECD standards. The agreement is one of a number recently signed for Gibraltar, including TIEAs with Ireland and New Zealand.

However, the Socialist Labour opposition party in Gibraltar has criticized the ruling Social Democrat government for not announcing such agreements. Shadow Minister for Financial Services Fabian Picardo said he is concerned that international news reports portray Gibraltar, which is on the OECD gray list, as “bending” to global pressure in its efforts to become more transparent. He continued:

“It is important that the Government should announce these agreements in Gibraltar and that the texts of these agreements should be accessible to the professionals in the financial services sector who are advising on international transactions. It is not satisfactory that [the Government] leaves our financial services sector to find out the existence of such agreements from reports in the international press of what other governments have said.”

Picardo added: “It is equally disappointing to see that Gibraltar is being presented as a recalcitrant party executing agreements under pressure as a result of the present Chief Minister’s failure to enter into 12 Tax Information Exchange Agreements before the G20 meeting in London in April. Guernsey, for example, is using the fact that its government had the foresight to enter into such agreements before the G20 meeting – and is therefore on the OECD white list – as a marketing tool. We are deprived of that positive marketing aspect by the Government’s failure to enter into the requisite 12 agreements before April.”

There have also been reports that Spain is to sign a TIEA in relation to Gibraltar – but that agreement will be with the UK, and not with Gibraltar.

[OffshorePrivacy]

Cayman Islands Signs 12th TIEA With New Zealand

The Cayman Islands has signed its 12th tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) with New Zealand, and moved onto the “white list” of countries that have “substantially implemented” the OECD’s internationally agreed tax standard.

The Cayman Islands’ Leader of Government Business/Premier Designate, McKeeva Bush, said: “For over four decades the Cayman Islands has steadily earned its place as a world-class international financial services center. The Cayman Islands Government sees the OECD’s recognition as a natural outcome of the country’s substantial commitment to uphold an equally world-class international cooperation regime in the exchange of tax information."

"The Cayman Islands Government is looking forward,” Bush continued, “to working in partnership with competent authorities in implementing agreements it has signed, concluding additional agreements with Cayman’s important trading partners in financial services, and continuing its active role in the OECD Global Forum, which it committed to in 2000."

Jeffrey Owens, Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, welcomed the signing, and said that the OECD looked forward to working further with the Cayman Islands as it extends its network of agreements and works to implement them swiftly and effectively.

New Zealand’s Revenue Minister, Peter Dunne, said: “Recent months have seen a flurry of TIEA signings internationally, as low-tax offshore financial centers seek to achieve a sufficient number of TIEAs to allow them to be seen as meeting the OECD's standards.”

Referring also to the TIEAs that New Zealand had signed with the British Virgin Islands and Gibraltar, he added: "I welcome the signing of this latest group of TIEAs, which brings to eight the number of these agreements New Zealand has entered into this year."

The TIEA allows the authorities in both countries to request direct tax records, business books and accounts, bank information, ownership information, and other tax-related information for the purpose of detecting and preventing tax avoidance and evasion by each other’s residents. Such information shall be that which is relevant to the determination, assessment and collection of direct taxes, the recovery and enforcement of tax claims, or the investigation or prosecution of tax matters.

The TIEA also includes an agreement for the allocation of taxing rights with respect to certain income of individuals (including pensions), and provisions to establish a mutual agreement procedure in respect of transfer pricing adjustments. It will enter into force after notification by both parties, after which it will have effect for taxable periods beginning on or after the following January 1.

[OffshorePrivacy]

Netherlands Antilles To Conclude TIEAs with Canada & Mexico

The Netherlands Antilles has announced that, on August 30 in Vancouver, and September 1 in Los Cabos, it will conclude agreements to exchange information with the tax authorities of Canada and Mexico in criminal and civil tax matters.

The agreement between Canada and the Netherlands Antilles was initialed in June 2008, while the agreement with Mexico was initialed in November 2007. The countries have completed their individual protocols, and in light of the OECD’s initiative on transparency and information exchange have agreed to bring the documents into force. Once the two agreements are signed, it will increase the Netherlands Antilles’ tally of such agreements to six, having already concluded agreements with Spain, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

In June, Netherlands Antilles’ State Secretary, Alex Rosaria, confirmed the jurisdiction's commitment to the OECD’s initiative to increase tax transparency globally, which requires territories that the organization deemed non-compliant in April 2009 to conclude at least 12 OECD model tax information exchange agreements.

In his June statement, Rosaria said that the jurisdiction would strive to conclude 16 agreements, including with Canada, Mexico, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Sweden, and Iceland, as well as updating existing double taxation treaties with Jamaica and Norway to contain information exchange provisions. Rosaria also disclosed that the territory would seek to conclude agreements with France, Italy, and Germany before end-2009.

[OffshorePrivacy]

Australia Adds TIEA With Gibraltar

It has been announced that Australia and Gibraltar have signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA).

"Implementing effective tax information exchange arrangements with offshore financial centres is an important element in Australia's efforts to prevent tax evasion and abuse," Australia’s Assistant Treasurer, Nick Sherry said. "Gibraltar is now the seventh jurisdiction to sign an information exchange treaty with Australia, as progress continues in making global finance more transparent."

"This agreement will provide a legal basis for the bilateral exchange of information, on request, for both civil and criminal tax purposes," he continued. "It will allow the Commissioner of Taxation to request information relevant to an Australian tax investigation directly from the authorities in Gibraltar. As a result of Gibraltar's constructive cooperation in this area, Australia will remove any governmental references to Gibraltar as a tax haven."

It was emphasised that the TIEA reinforces Australia's long-standing commitment to improving tax transparency globally through the implementation of tax information exchange standards developed by the OECD. The other six foreign jurisdictions to have signed a TIEA with Australia are Bermuda, Antigua and Barbuda, the Netherlands Antilles, the British Virgin Islands, Jersey and the Isle of Man.

The TIEA with Gibraltar, which was signed in London, will come into force after Australia and Gibraltar have completed their respective domestic requirements.

[OffshorePrivacy]

Singapore Concludes Fourth TIEA, With Denmark

Singapore and Denmark signed a protocol on August 25 amending the existing convention they share for the avoidance of double taxation to include provisions for the exchange of information in tax matters.

The signing, held in Singapore, was undertaken by Singapore’s Commissioner of Inland Revenue, Moses Lee, and Denmark's Ambassador to Singapore, Vibeke Rovsing Lauritzen.

The agreement marks Singapore’s fourth agreement that incorporates the internationally agreed OECD standard on transparency and information exchange. It will allow, upon entry into force, the two countries' tax authorities to seek information on a reciprocal basis on civil tax investigations, and investigations into tax crimes.

The protocol will enter into force after Singapore’s Parliament has passed legislative amendments to allow the country’s tax authority to share information in accordance with the internationally agreed standard, and when both countries have concluded their individual ratification procedures.

The full text of the protocol will be made available on the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore’s website.

[OffshorePrivacy]

UK And Gibraltar Sign TIEA

The UK's HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced on August 27 that a new Tax Information Exchange Agrement (TIEA) with Gibraltar has been signed by representatives of each government.

The agreement was initialed in London on August 24 by Lord Myners, Financial Services Secretary to the UK Treasury and in Gibraltar on August 27 by Peter Caruana, Chief Minister of the government of Gibraltar.

According to an announcement by HMRC, the new TIEA with Gibraltar will enable the two governments to exchange information to OECD and international tax standards “to ensure that the right amount of tax is paid in each country in the future”.

Gibraltar has also signed TIEAs with the USA, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand and Australia.

According paragraph 1 of the agreement, taxes covered include “taxes of every kind and description” imposed in either jurisdiction.

“This Agreement shall also apply to any identical or substantially similar taxes imposed by either Party after the date of signature of this Agreement in addition to, or in place of, any of the taxes listed in paragraph 1 of this Article,” the text of the TIEA states.

The text will shortly be laid as a Schedule to a draft Order in Council for consideration by the House of Commons in the UK.

The agreement will come into effect as soon as each government has completed the necessary procedures to give effect to it under its domestic laws.

[OffshorePrivacy]

St Kitts And Nevis Seeks TIEAs

The government of St Kitts and Nevis has announced that it is currently negotiating Tax Information Exchange Agreements with several countries, including the Nordic nations of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Speaking at the government’s monthly press conference on August 26, St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, Denzil Douglas revealed that his government was also negotiating similar agreements with New Zealand, Aruba, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands.

“St. Kitts and Nevis is not among those countries unfortunate enough to have been placed on the strangely-named ‘black list’," the Prime Minister explained, continuing:

"At any rate, one of the key objectives of my government is the establishment of double taxation agreements that would prevent foreign nationals who invest here, from also being taxed in their own countries. I am pleased to report, because of the impact that this will have on our ability to continue to attract foreign investors, that a number of the above-mentioned countries have already offered to enter into supplemental agreements to this effect.”

At a meeting in London earlier this year, the OECD reintroduced a listing process that included a black list of countries that had not committed to the OECD project to eliminate harmful tax practices; a grey list of countries that had made commitments but had not yet entered into the minimum number of Tax Information Exchange Agreements to be deemed to have substantially met the standard; and a white list of countries that are deemed to meet the OECD standard for tax information exchange.

St Kitts and Nevis was initially placed on the 'grey list', leading to arrangements being made to sign agreements to exchange tax information in civil and administrative tax matters with at least 12 OECD countries.

“One area that is being looked at carefully is the domestic laws in place with these “soon to be” treaty partners which provide relief from double taxation for their residents who make investments in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis,” Chief Executive Officer of the St. Kitts Investment Promotion Agency (SKIPA), Shawna Lake confirmed.

“A number of the countries with which we have been negotiating have offered to enter into supplemental agreements with the Federation to provide relief from double taxation and some other jurisdictions have in place very fair domestic laws which provide exemptions from taxes for their residents who establish businesses in our jurisdiction. These measures are viewed by the Federation as very progressive as they provide for inclusion of our jurisdiction and other small developing countries into the international market in a responsible way,” Lake concluded.

[OffshorePrivacy]

Germany And Liechtenstein Sign Tax Information Exchange Agreement

Liechtenstein and Germany have signed an agreement on cooperation and information exchange on tax matters after initialing the document in July 2009.

The text of the treaty follows the OECD Model Convention and provides for information exchange upon request. The agreement will come into force once the ratification process has been concluded, and will be effective for the 2010 tax year onwards.

"The agreement signed today is good for our relations and for the first time offers a procedure governed by the rule of law for cross-border cooperation on tax matters between our two countries," announced Liechtenstein's Prime Minister Klaus Tschütscher, continuing:

"Like the agreement already concluded with the United States in December 2008, the agreement signed today provides legal certainty for citizens and a stable set of rules for the financial centre."

The agreement, although comprehensive, did not include the same special conditions offered in the UK accord, which was signed in August 2009.

Germany and Liechtenstein have agreed to continue talks on closer cooperation, with a view to concluding a double taxation agreement in the near future. Talks in this regard have already begun.

"The next step is now to conclude an agreement eliminating double taxation, which is detrimental to our economic relations," the Liechtenstein Prime Minister revealed.

Several months ago we had heard rumors of this and had stopped recommending our Liechtenstein bank for German citizens just in case it was signed... We now understand that Switzerland and Germany are currently negotiating a TIEA or a Double tax agreement with information sharing

[OffshorePrivacy]

UK Signs Tax Treaty and Information Sharing With Switzerland

The United Kingdom and Switzerland on September 7 amended the double tax agreement between the two countries to include the internationally-agreed standard on transparency and information exchange, which will help them to crack down on the evasion of tax.

The agreement was signed by the Financial Secretary to the UK Treasury, Stephen Timms, and the Swiss Ambassador to the UK, Alexis Lautenberg.

Following the conclusion of the agreement Stephen Timms commented:

“I very much welcome the Swiss Federal Council’s agreement on international co-operation in tax matters and their adoption of the OECD standard on administrative assistance.”

“The days when hiding money off-shore represented a viable means of evading UK tax are rapidly drawing to a close,” he added.

Dave Hartnett, HMRC’s Permanent Secretary for Tax, observed that:

“Transparency and information exchange are the foundation on which fair and effective tax systems are built. I am delighted that there is growing global recognition of the inevitability of properly regulated information exchange as the key to proper tax visibility.”

On March 13, 2009, the Swiss Federal Council announced that Switzerland would change policy on international cooperation in tax matters, and would adopt the OECD standard on administrative assistance in tax matters under Article 26 of the OECD Model Double Taxation Convention. The decision will permit exchange of information on tax matters in individual cases, where a specific and justified request has been made.