Monthly Newsletter

The British Virgin Islands government announced this week the signing of bilateral tax information exchange agreements with the six Nordic countries, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden at the Icelandic Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, on May 18.

The agreements were signed by BVI Minister of Health and Social Development Dancia Penn and senior officials from the Nordic group. The OECD model agreements will provide for the exchange of information in tax matters in both civil tax matters and where there is concrete proof of the perpetration of a tax crime.

At the ceremony Penn also concluded agreements for the avoidance of double taxation with the Nordic group on behalf of the British Virgin Islands. The agreements will encourage increased trade and investment between the respective countries by removing double taxation and setting up a beneficial legal framework.

The British Virgin Island’s government has also announced that it is to sign agreements for the exchange of information in tax matters with France and New Zealand in the near future, moving the jurisdiction closer to a place on the OECD’s white list of fully compliant territories.