St Kitts And Nevis Seeks TIEAs

by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

01 September 2009

The government of St Kitts and Nevis has announced that it is currently negotiating Tax Information Exchange Agreements with several countries, including the Nordic nations of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Speaking at the government’s monthly press conference on August 26, St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, Denzil Douglas revealed that his government was also negotiating similar agreements with New Zealand, Aruba, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands.

“St. Kitts and Nevis is not among those countries unfortunate enough to have been placed on the strangely-named ‘black list’," the Prime Minister explained, continuing:

"At any rate, one of the key objectives of my government is the establishment of double taxation agreements that would prevent foreign nationals who invest here, from also being taxed in their own countries. I am pleased to report, because of the impact that this will have on our ability to continue to attract foreign investors, that a number of the above-mentioned countries have already offered to enter into supplemental agreements to this effect.”

At a meeting in London earlier this year, the OECD reintroduced a listing process that included a black list of countries that had not committed to the OECD project to eliminate harmful tax practices; a grey list of countries that had made commitments but had not yet entered into the minimum number of Tax Information Exchange Agreements to be deemed to have substantially met the standard; and a white list of countries that are deemed to meet the OECD standard for tax information exchange.

St Kitts and Nevis was initially placed on the 'grey list', leading to arrangements being made to sign agreements to exchange tax information in civil and administrative tax matters with at least 12 OECD countries.

“One area that is being looked at carefully is the domestic laws in place with these “soon to be” treaty partners which provide relief from double taxation for their residents who make investments in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis,” Chief Executive Officer of the St. Kitts Investment Promotion Agency (SKIPA), Shawna Lake confirmed.

“A number of the countries with which we have been negotiating have offered to enter into supplemental agreements with the Federation to provide relief from double taxation and some other jurisdictions have in place very fair domestic laws which provide exemptions from taxes for their residents who establish businesses in our jurisdiction. These measures are viewed by the Federation as very progressive as they provide for inclusion of our jurisdiction and other small developing countries into the international market in a responsible way,” Lake concluded.

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