South Korea, Bahamas Sign TIEA

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

08 August 2011

The South Korean Ambassador to the United States, Han Duck-soo and the Bahamian Ambassador, Cornelius Smith, has signed a bilateral tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) at the South Korean Embassy in Washington.

Incorporating the internationally-agreed Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) standard for the exchange of information upon request, the agreement will give the tax authorities of both countries a greater ability to exchange taxpayer information.

In a statement at the TIEA’s signing ceremony, Smith confirmed that the agreement with South Korea is the 25th such agreement that The Bahamas has signed, and the fourth with a major Asian economy. He said that “the government is confident that the continued expansion of its tax cooperation network further enhances this country’s position as a reputable international business centre for the conduct of legitimate global activities”.

He added that the government welcomed the conclusion of the agreement with South Korea, as fellow active participant in the on-going work of the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Tax Information Exchange and its Peer Review Group. He confirmed that the Bahamas and South Korea have both been active supporters, on the United Nations Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters, of even and fair standards for governing global financial activities.

“The involvement of both of our governments in the international tax cooperation work of the UN and the OECD, as well as the conclusion of this TIEA today, further demonstrates the mutual commitment we share for the effective implementation of accepted international standards for financial regulation and cross-border cooperation.”

While the Bahamas is only the fourth country with which South Korea has completed such an agreement, its National Tax Service had disclosed, earlier this year, that it would utilize its current and planned network of TIEAs with other countries to investigate South Korean taxpayers with suspected undeclared foreign bank accounts.

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