New Zealand Signs TIEA With Gibraltar

by Philip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

18 August 2009

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.

A comprehensive report in our Intelligence Report series, examining in depth the situation of offshore transparency and secrecy in a number of the most prominent jurisdictions, is available in the Lowtax Library at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/subs_reports.asp and a description of the report can be seen at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/description_report2.asp.

 

 






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