Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Hon.  Dr. Denzil L. Douglas presented India’s request to the Cabinet as part of his government’s effort to promote international co-operation in tax matters through exchange of information.
“The Agreement grew out of the work undertaken by the OECD to address harmful tax practices. The lack of effective exchange of information has been identified as one of the key criteria in determining harmful tax practices,” said Minister of Information, Sen. the Hon. Nigel Carty in the routine post Cabinet briefing.
Cabinet gave its approval for St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr. Hon. Denzil Douglas, presented to the Cabinet a request from India to enter into a tax information exchange agreement.
The purpose of TIEA is to promote international co-operation in tax matters through exchange of information. The Agreement grew out of the work undertaken by the OECD to address harmful tax practices. The lack of effective exchange of information has been identified as one of the key criteria in determining harmful tax practices.
It was also approved for negotiations to start with Guernsey, South Korea, Greece and Mauritius with a view to concluding Tax Information Exchange Agreements.
St. Kitts and Nevis has already signed 17 agreements and 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 already 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.