San Marino, China Sign TIEA

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

12 July 2012

On July 9, 2012, China’s Director of State Administration of Taxation (SAT) Xiao Jie and San Marino’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Antonella Mularoni signed, in Beijing, a tax information exchange agreement (TIEA).

The TIEA, which incorporates the internationally-agreed Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development standard for the exchange of information for tax purposes, gives both jurisdictions' tax authorities a greater ability to exchange taxpayer information and to exchange that information on a wider range of taxes.

It also provides that a tax authority cannot refuse to provide information solely because it does not require the information for its own domestic purposes. Information provided shall include, for example, that held by banks and other financial institutions.

The SAT pointed out that TIEAs are the prime means by which authorities can prevent taxpayers from pursuing adverse tax planning, and that the agreement with San Marino is China’s ninth following the signature of similar agreements with the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, Bermuda, Argentina and the Cayman Islands.

San Marino’s government added that work was now progressing to complete a bilateral investment agreement as soon as possible between the two places, to be followed, hopefully, by the formulation of a double taxation agreement.