HAMILTON, Bermuda – Bermuda’s Minister of Finance the Hon. Paula A. Cox announced that Bermuda has concluded a bilateral agreement with Aruba that provides for a full exchange of information on criminal and civil tax matters between Bermuda and Aruba.
The tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) marks Bermuda’s eighteenth signed TIEA and further demonstrates Bermuda’s commitment to substantially implement the internationally agreed tax standard.
Commenting on the Agreement, Minister Cox said, “It is a particular pleasure for me to sign this document with Aruba, an overseas territory of the Kingdom of Netherlands, following our signing with the Netherlands on June 8th, which itself marked our 12th signed TIEA. Our TIEA with the Netherlands satisfied the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) standard and resulted in Bermuda being the first country to ascend to the white list from the grey list. Bermuda now having concluded a TIEA with Aruba today, and with Netherlands Antilles on September 28th, draws Bermuda that much closer to the Netherlands and its overseas territories.”
Bermuda presently has agreements with the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, the Nordic Group (including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories the Faroe Islands and Greenland), Germany, The Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ireland, Netherlands Antilles, and Mexico. These Agreements are available for review on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development website at www.oecd.org.
Bermuda’s TIEA with Aruba includes all standard means to ensure due process is followed in tax information requests to Bermuda, including, but not limited to, the following provisions: the request must not pertain to information in the possession or control of a person other than the taxpayer that does not relate specifically to the tax affairs of the taxpayer; the information is protected from disclosure under the laws of Bermuda on the grounds of legal professional privilege; the requesting party’s request for information must be obtainable under its own laws for the purposes of the administration or enforcement of its tax laws or in response to a valid request from the Minister under the agreement; the disclosure of the information must not be contrary to public policy; the requesting party must keep the information confidential and may not disclose it to any unauthorized person.
