Jersey/Netherlands Tax Information Exchange Agreement Enters Into Force

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

21 March 2008

The Dutch government has announced that the Tax and Information Exchange agreement concluded last year by the Netherlands and Jersey went into effect at the beginning of March, 2008.

On 20 June, 2007, the Netherlands and Jersey signed two agreements: the agreement for the exchange of information relating to tax matters and the agreement on the access to mutual agreements procedures in connection with the adjustment of profits of associated enterprises and the application of the Netherlands participation exemption. Both agreements entered into force on 1 March, 2008, the Dutch Finance Ministry has announced.

"The Tax Information Exchange Agreement shall have effect for criminal tax matters on that date and for all other tax matters on that date, but only in respect of taxable periods beginning on or after that date or, where there is no taxable period, all charges to tax arising on or after that date. The agreement on the access to mutual agreements procedures shall apply to proceedings which are initiated after March 1, 2008," the ministry explained in a statement.

Last year, the Dutch government said that it was preparing to sign a "considerable number" of TIEAs with offshore and onshore jurisdictions as it commenced a drive to reduce tax evasion.

In July 2007, the Dutch newspaper Financiele Dagblad reported Robert ten Have, head of the bilateral tax treaties department of the Dutch Finance Ministry as announcing that the strategy was designed to allow the Dutch authorities to "see what's going on in these territorial jurisdictions".

At this time, the Finance Ministry had already announced a list of thirty countries that it wished to conclude tax information exchange agreements with during 2007, and these included: Algeria, Australia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, France, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, the Isle of Man, Japan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Saudi-Arabia, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

The Netherlands also signed a ground-breaking economic agreement with the Isle of Man in 2005, which included as part of the deal a TIEA, a transfer pricing agreement, a double taxation avoidance agreement and a shipping and aircraft taxation agreement.

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