Seychelles and Guernsey sign accord to exchange tax info
Seychelles and the States of Guernsey have strengthened their bilateral relations with the signing of a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) that took place late last year.
In a signing ceremony at the Seychelles high commission in London, Patrick Pillay, the high commissioner for Seychelles to the United Kingdom, welcomed the chief minister of the States of Guernsey, Deputy Lyndon Trott, and expressed his gratitude to the Guernsey authorities for their cooperation in concluding the agreement.
The signing of this agreement represents Seychelles’ commitment to enforcing the OECD’s Peer Review Report of 2010, the country’s national effort to attract further foreign direct investment.
“It also represents an important commitment for the future, that we, as a small island developing state, are willing to make despite all the challenges that we face, in order to achieve significant progress towards better transparency and exchange of information,” said Mr Pillay.
Mr Trott echoed the same sentiments, stating that small jurisdictions need to work slightly harder than bigger economies to be more transparent and in the current economic downturn, the resulting transparency will make smaller jurisdictions be seen not as part of the problem, but as part of the global solution.
It was also noted that Guernsey has a well-established financial services sector which is managed in a transparent manner through information-sharing agreements.
Guernsey is the ninth jurisdiction with which Seychelles signs a TIEA. This will further complement our growing network of agreements for the avoidance of double taxation (DTA) that is also expanding.
Seychelles’ priority is to enter TIEAs within the confines of a DTA. However TIEAs are considered without establishing a DTA if that jurisdiction provides unilateral relief to residents.
Source: NATION 12-6-12