Singapore And Mexico Add Tax Information Exchange Protocol To DTA

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

05 October 2009

Singapore and Mexico have signed a protocol to incorporate the internationally agreed Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) standard for the exchange of information upon request for tax purposes into their existing agreement for the avoidance of double taxation (DTA).

Ng Wai Choong, Deputy Secretary (Policy), Ministry of Finance, signed the protocol with José Antonio Meade Kuribreña, Under-minister of Revenue, the Mexican Ministry of Revenue and Public Credit, in Mexico City. The existing DTA had been signed on November 9, 2004.

The protocol will give the tax authorities of both countries a greater ability to exchange taxpayer information and to exchange information on a wider range of taxes. It also provides that neither tax authority can refuse to provide information solely because it does not require the information for its own domestic purposes, or because the information is held by a bank or similar institution.

The protocol will enter into force after Singapore's legislative amendments to give effect to the internationally agreed standard within its DTAs have been approved by Parliament and gazetted into law, and 30 days after notification that ratification procedures have been completed by both countries.

The signing of this protocol with Mexico brings the number of jurisdictions to ten with which Singapore has incorporated tax information exchange conforming to the OECD standard within its DTAs.

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