States Of Guernsey To Sign Nordic Tax Agreements

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

21 July 2008

In an announcement on Friday, the States of Guernsey confirmed that it is to sign a package of tax agreements with seven Nordic countries later this year.

Chief Minister Deputy Lyndon Trott will sign the four separate agreements, including Tax Information Exchange Agreements (known as ‘TIEA’s) with Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands in Helsinki, Finland, in October.

Jersey will sign similar agreements at the same time. The Isle of Man already has these agreements in place.

The related agreements will provide relief from double taxation in a number of specific areas. Double tax agreements open up countries to doing business with Guernsey because they would no longer be required to pay tax twice.

Signing the agreements will create the opportunity for Guernsey to negotiate further agreements to avoid double taxation, combined with further information exchange agreements, with each of the Nordic countries in the relatively near future.

Under the terms of the agreements, Guernsey and the other signatories will exchange bank and other information on request relating to both criminal and civil tax matters.

For criminal tax matters information exchange can apply whether the investigation relates to conduct before or after the coming into force of the agreement. For civil tax matters such exchange can apply only in respect of taxable periods beginning on or after the date of entry into force.

Deputy Trott commented:

"These agreements reinforce our independent status on tax matters and our status in a global financial services industry.

"Securing the best available benefits in these negotiations is important for the island’s competitive position and we believe it will open up some real economic advantages for certain sectors of our economy."

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