St Kitts And Nevis Concludes Seventh TIEA

by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

21 December 2009

The St Kitts and Nevis government has signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) – its seventh such agreement that complies with the OECD internationally agreed standard – with the Principality of Liechtenstein.

The agreement was signed by St Kitts and Nevis’ Ambassador to the United States Izben Williams, and Liechtenstein Ambassador to the United States Claudia Fritsche. The six other agreements reached are with New Zealand, Monaco, The Netherlands, The Netherland Antilles, Aruba, and Denmark. St Kitts and Nevis must conclude a further five agreements in order to be recognized as a territory that has substantially implemented the internationally agreed standard on transparency and tax information exchange, placing it on the OECD "white list."

TIEAs allow signatory countries to request information from each other that is relevant to a tax investigation. As provided in the agreement, such information would typically relate to bank accounts or the beneficial ownership of companies or trusts.

St Kitts and Nevis has already initialed 10 other agreements, including with the six Nordic countries, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. The official signing of these agreements is yet to be decided between with the respective countries.

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