Nordic Countries Conclude More TIEAs

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

25 March 2010

The Nordic Council, comprising of the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, has recently announced the signing of tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) with St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Kitts and Nevis.

The TIEAs were signed on March 24, 2010, at a ceremony in the Icelandic embassy in Paris. Denmark did not participate in the signing as the state already has agreements with the respective territories, concluded in 2009.

When the agreements enter into force they will facilitate the exchange of information between the territory’s tax authorities and the Nordic group on the capital investments and additional incomes of resident taxpayers in Nordic countries not declaring assets held offshore. The conclusion of the agreements is a continuation of an ongoing project aimed at mitigating tax evasion, the Council said in a statement.

The Nordic countries have previously signed a number of TIEAs, most recently with the Bahamas on March 10, 2010, and continue to seek further agreements with territories that were placed on the OECD grey list on April 2, 2009. Having signed at least twelve tax information exchange agreements, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines have subsequently been placed on the OECD white list of territories that have substantially-implemented the internationally-agreed standard.

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