Mauritius Signs 31st Tax Treaty With Croatia

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

17 September 2002

At the end of last week, Mauritius signed a Double Tax Treaty with Croatia; the document was signed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Paul Berenger and his Croatian counterpart, Dr M.Crkvenac. That brings to 31 the tally of Mauritius' Double Tax Treaties.

It is unusual for a low-tax jurisdiction to have so many tax treaties (or indeed any at all) with OECD member states: Mauritius' partners include Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg, South Africa and the UK.

Generally speaking, the treaty benefits are available to all Mauritian companies other than International Companies. All of Mauritius' treaties are based on the OECD model treaty, and contain exchange of information clauses; however, the exchange is limited to matters concerning the working of the treaties themselves.

There have recently been problems connected with the operation of the Mauritius/India double tax treaty, after Indian tax inspectors began to query the tax status of some Mauritius-resident companies which they claimed were owned by Indians. It is likely that the terms of the treaty will be tightened up as a result.

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