TAX NEWS - June 2010

St. Kitts and Nevis Tax: St. Kitts and Nevis and Canada sign Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA)

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - St. Kitts and Nevis has signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with Canada, bringing to 17, the number of countries such an agreement has been signed.

St. Kitts and Nevis Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Sam Condor and Canada's Non-Resident High Commisioner to St. Kitts and Nevis, Her Excellency Ruth Archibald signed the agreement on Monday.

St. Kitts and Nevis was removed from the so-called "grey list" and placed on the "white list" when the twin-island Federation signed its 14th agreement and it was considered to have "substantially implemented" an international reporting standard.

The standard, developed by the OECD in 2002, was designed to combat harmful tax practices through the sharing of tax data among nations.

To date, St. Kitts and Nevis has signed Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA's) with the United Kingdom, Australia, Monaco, The Netherlands, The Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Greenland, Farore Islands, Iceland, Finland and Canada.

The twin-island Federation has already initialed or concluded negotiations with and is awaiting dates for signature with France, Germany and San Marino.

The Federation has commenced discussions with India, Japan, the Republic of Seychelles and the United States on Tax Information Exchange Agreement but has not yet confirmed the text for these agreements.