Marshall Islands Signs Nordic TIEAs

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

04 October 2010

The Nordic Council, comprising of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, as well as the autonomous territories of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, has entered into an agreement with the Marshall Islands for the exchange of tax information to facilitate in the prevention of fiscal evasion.

The agreement was signed at the Finnish Embassy in Singapore on September 28. The agreement was negotiated in line with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's model agreement, and will provide Nordic countries with access to tax information relating to assets held by their territories' taxpayers in the Marshall Islands on request where there is evidence of the perpetration of tax evasion.

The Nordic countries are leading the way in terms of agreements signed with third countries having, since negotiations began in 2007, entered into TIEAs with Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Monaco, the Netherlands Antilles, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Gibraltar, the Grenadines, the Cook Islands, Samoa, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, and St. Lucia.

The agreements with the Marshall Islands must be ratified bilaterally by the territories’ legislative assemblies before they can enter into force.

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