Bermuda Concludes TIEA With Aruba

by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

23 October 2009

Bermuda’s Minister of Finance, Paula Cox, has announced that Bermuda has concluded a bilateral tax agreement that provides for a full exchange of information on criminal and civil tax matters between Bermuda and Aruba.

The tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) marks Bermuda’s eighteenth signed TIEA and further demonstrates Bermuda’s commitment to substantially implement the internationally agreed OECD tax standard.

Commenting on the agreement, Cox said, “It is a particular pleasure for me to sign this document with Aruba, an overseas territory of the Netherlands, following our signing with the Netherlands on June 8, which itself marked our twelfth signed TIEA.”

“Our TIEA with the Netherlands satisfied the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) standard and resulted in Bermuda being the first country to ascend to the white list from the gray list. Bermuda now having concluded a TIEA with Aruba today, and with Netherlands Antilles on September 28, draws Bermuda that much closer to the Netherlands and its overseas territories.”

Bermuda presently has agreements with the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, the Nordic Group (i.e. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories), Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, the Netherlands Antilles, and Mexico.

Bermuda’s TIEA with Aruba includes all standard means to ensure due process is followed in tax information requests to Bermuda, including, but not limited to, the following provisions:

  • the request must not pertain to information in the possession or control of a person other than the taxpayer that does not relate specifically to the tax affairs of the taxpayer;
  • the information is protected from disclosure under the laws of Bermuda on the grounds of legal professional privilege;
  • the requesting party’s request for information must be obtainable under its own laws for the purposes of the administration or enforcement of its tax laws or in response to a valid request from the Minister under the agreement;
  • the disclosure of the information must not be contrary to public policy; and
  • the requesting party must keep the information confidential and may not disclose it to any unauthorized person.

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