| Bermuda Signs TIEA With Portugal |
by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Bermuda’s Minister of Finance, Paula Cox, has signed another Tax Information
Exchange Agreement (TIEA), with Portugal, further providing evidence of the territory’s
commitment to transparency and bilateral cooperation on the exchange of tax
information with G20 member states.
Bermuda's TIEA with Portugal includes all standard means to ensure due process
is followed in tax information requests to Bermuda, including, for example,
provisions to protect the confidentiality of information provided, as well as
adhering to public policy, provisions related to protecting legal privilege,
and anti-fishing provisions to ensure that requests for information from Portugal
are relevant to ongoing tax investigations being conducted by Portuguese authorities.
Commenting on the signing, Cox stated: “The conclusion of negotiations with Portugal is a milestone for our
two countries. Bermuda and Portugal have longstanding cultural and business
ties dating back to the 1840s when Portuguese settlers first started immigrating
to Bermuda.”
“Today, Portuguese represent over 9% of our population. In fact, this
year, our 400th anniversary of settlement, Bermuda renamed Spanish Rock to Portuguese
Rock to reflect that the Spittal Pond landmark was engraved by Portuguese shipwreck
survivors and not Spanish, as initially thought.”
“This is the second instance of Bermuda negotiating directly with Portugal,
following the signing of the Bermuda Azorean Accord in 1991 which expanded the
rights of Azoreans to work in Bermuda. Bermuda's proposed treaty with Portugal
will further strengthen and deepen our relationship with Portugal and provide
immense opportunities for further business links between Bermuda and Portugal.”
Bradley Kading, of the Association of Business Insurers and Reinsurers,
praised the deal: "Bermuda global reinsurers have an estimated 23% of the broker placed reinsurance
placed for Portugal's domestic insurers. There are longstanding cultural ties
between Portugal and Bermuda and good business relationships have been developed.
The TIEA will help encourage additional business relationships which will be
good for both Portugal and Bermuda."
Bermuda now has 18 signed TIEAs, including with G7 members France, Germany,
the UK and the US, and with Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the Netherlands,
the Nordic Group (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, the Faroe Islands
and Greenland), the Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, and Mexico. Negotiations have
been concluded with, amongst others, Canada, Japan, Spain and Belgium, with these
agreements anticipated to be signed in early 2010.
A comprehensive report in our Intelligence Report series,
examining in depth the situation of offshore transparency and secrecy in a number
of the most prominent jurisdictions, is available in the Lowtax Library at
http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/subs_reports.asp
and a description of the report can be seen at
http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/description_report2.asp
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