BVI Territory Signs TIEA wil Ireland and China

December 7. The British Virgin Islands signed tax information exchange agreement with Ireland. The TIEA is based on a model agreement developed by the OECD, and will allow the British Virgin Islands to send requests to the Revenue Commissioners to obtain and provide information needed in the course of its tax investigations. Also, after this document is signed, the Revenue Commissioners from Ireland may request information from their counterpart in the British Virgin Islands.

The information relevant to Ireland's tax investigation issues in most cases would concern the bank accounts or the beneficial ownership of companies or trusts.

Another TIEA was concluded between the BVI and China, signed by BVI Premier and Minister of Finance, Ralph O’Neal and Chinese Deputy Commissioner of the State Administration of Taxation, Qian Guanlin.

In his statement after signing the agreements, O'Neal remarked that they were a significant milestone in relations between the Governments of the British Virgin Islands, China and Ireland, and expressed the commitment to examine other areas of mutual co-operation and benefit.

Previous TIEA was concluded by the BVI with the Kingdom of Netherlands in September 2009. With signing of these two agreements, total number of tax exchange agreements signed by the BVI Territory reached 17.