On April 6th-7th Senator Nick Sherry, Assistant Treasurer of Australia, announced the signing of TIEA agreements with The Cayman Islands, The Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Monaco, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. With the signing ceremonies complete, the TIEAs will be implemented upon the completion of legal ratification by both signatories. The new agreements raise Australia’s TIEA total to 22.

Explaining Australia’s pursuit to expand its TIEA network, Nick Sherry said, “As Chair of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information, Australia is playing a leading role in the international effort to combat harmful tax competition.” Australia is currently participating in peer-review process sanctioned by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which is aimed at gauging the progress and effectiveness of international efforts to implement previously signed TIEAs.

The documents for all of Australia’s TIEA agreements can be found on the Australian Treasury website.

Photo by Pascal Vuylsteker

On March 18th the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) announced the initiation of the first step in the most extensive and through international tax transparency assesment process that has ever been undertaken. Eighteen nations from the 91 participating members of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information will soon undergo extensive analysis to determine the adequacy of their efforts to implement internationally agreed upon taxation standards, such as the effectiveness of the bilateral Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA) which were signed by all participating jurisdictions. The first set assessment results are expected to be published before the next Global Forum meeting to be held in Singapore in September 2010. The eighteen reviewed nations will consist of Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Botswana, Canada, Cayman Islands, Denmark, Germany, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Jersey, Mauritius, Monaco, Norway, Panama, Qatar and Trinidad & Tobago.

The peer-reviews come as a response to calls raised by G20 leaders at their Pittsburgh Summit in September 2009 for greater tax transparency and a “robust peer review mechanism” to ensure the rapid, timely and appropriate implementation of the OECD standard on information exchange. Mike Rawson, Chair of the Global Forum, commented on the upcoming reviews, saying: “…this is the most comprehensive, in-depth review on international tax co-operation ever…The peer review process will identify jurisdictions that are not implementing the standards. These will be provided with guidance on the changes required and a deadline to report back on the improvements they have made.”

Photo by claeskrantz

The London G20 Summit, held on the 2nd of April this year, heralded an unprecedented wave of Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA). In what was described as “revolutionary” by Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General, the number of completed TIEAs has almost doubled since their inception in late 2000.
Since the G20 summit, and subsequent global push for greater tax transparency and compliance, the following 53 agreements have been signed.

United States – Monaco (8 September 2009)
Denmark – Turks & Caicos Islands (7 September 2009)
Netherlands – Antigua & Barbuda (2 September 2009)
Denmark – Gibraltar (2 September 2009)
Denmark – Anguilla (2 September 2009)
Germany – Liechtenstein (2 September 2009)
Netherlands – St Vincent & the Grenadines (1 September 2009)
Denmark – St Vincent & Grenadines (1 September 2009)
Denmark – St Kitts & Nevis (1 September 2009)
Netherlands – St Kitts & Nevis (1 September 2009)
Canada – Netherlands Antilles (29 August 2009)
United Kingdom – Gibraltar (27 August 2009)
Australia – Gibraltar (25 August 2009)
New Zealand – British Virgin Islands (14 August 2009)
New Zealand – Cayman Islands (14 August 2009)
New Zealand – Gibraltar (13 August 2009)
Germany – Gibraltar (13 August 2009)
United Kingdom – Liechtenstein (11 August 2009)
Monaco – San Marino (29 July 2009)
Bermuda – Ireland (28 July 2009)
New Zealand – Isle of Man (27 July 2009)
New Zealand – Jersey (27 July 2009)
United Kingdom – Turks & Caicos (23 July 2009)
Netherlands – Turks & Caicos (22 July 2009)
Netherlands – Anguilla (22 July 2009)
Ireland – Turks & Caicos (22 July 2009)
Ireland – Anguilla (22 July 2009)
New Zealand – Guernsey (21 July 2009)
UK – Anguilla (20 July 2009)
Belgium – Monaco (15 July 2009)
New Zealand – Cook Islands (9 July 2009)
Netherlands – Cayman Islands (8 July 2009)
Germany – Bermuda (3 July 2009)
Ireland – Gibraltar (24 June 2009)
Ireland – Cayman Islands (23 June 2009)
France – British Virgin Islands (17 June 09)
Australia – Jersey (10 June 2009)
The Netherlands – Bermuda (8 June 2009)
Denmark – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
Faroes – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
Finland – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
Greenland – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
Iceland – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
Norway – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
Sweden – British Virgin Islands (19 May 2009)
New Zealand – Bermuda (17 April 2009)
Denmark – Bermuda (16 April 2009)
Faroes – Bermuda (16 April 2009)
Finland – Bermuda (16 April 2009)
Greenland – Bermuda (16 April 2009)
Iceland – Bermuda (16 April 2009)
Norway – Bermuda (16 April 2009)
Sweden – Bermuda (16 April 2009)

Previous to these, 63 agreements had been signed, bringing the total at the 10th of September to 116.

The Taxation Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) between the city-state of Monaco and the US will allow each jurisdiction a greater set of capabilities in fighting cross border tax evasion. The agreement will allow either nation to request bank, tax and other information from the other jurisdiction on the grounds that there have already been reasonable attempts made to obtain it by other means. The agreement also extends to allow officials from one country to enter the other for the purpose of conducting necessary interviews. Although, these capabilities are restricted to a case by case basis and have absolutely no scope “information fishing”. The agreement comes into force in 2010 and extends to both civil and criminal court proceedings.

At the TIEA announcement Neal Wolin, US Deputy Treasury Secretary, said “This administration is wholeheartedly committed to combating offshore tax evasion,” and also ”We are working with countries like Monaco to ensure that the IRS has access to the information that it needs to enforce U.S. tax law. Today’s agreement serves as an example for other financial centers around the world and reflects our continued efforts to end the use of offshore accounts as a tool for tax evasion.”