Double Taxation Agreements and Tax Information Exchange Agreements

United Kingdom

The British Government has recently announced its priorities for the negotiation of tax treaties and information exchange agreements for 2007.

During the year it intends to progress negotiations with those of the Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories where agreements have not already been concluded. The Crown Dependencies are Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. There are currently sixteen British Overseas Territories and those of greatest interest to readers are likely to be Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

A new agreement with Botswana was approved in May 2006 and there are plans to amend the agreements with various other countries including South Africa.

Agreements on the taxation of savings interest with Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba came into force on 1st July 2005 and a similar agreement with Gibraltar was effective from 1st April 2006.

Anyone with a banking account or other source of savings interest in any of the above territories may be affected. Tax Information Exchange Agreements, particularly, break new ground as they require any party to such an agreement to obtain information required by the other party, even if it is not required for its own purposes by the party receiving the request.

August 2006

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