2014年9月刊 - 香港和6个北欧国家之间的税务信息交换协议

Key features

Pursuant to the six recently signed TIEAs, Hong Kong and the six Nordic jurisdictions shall provide mutual assistance through Exchange of Information (“EoI”) that is foreseeably relevant to the administration and enforcement of international laws concerning taxes covered by the agreements.

The key features of the above six TIEAs are set forth as follows.

Taxes covered

The TIEAs cover the following taxes:

For Hong Kong, only direct taxes, i.e. profits tax, salaries tax and property tax.
For the six Nordic jurisdictions, in addition to direct taxes, certain indirect taxes are also included, e.g. value added tax / goods and services tax, inheritance or gift taxes.

EoI upon request

The TIEAs require the contracting party, upon receipt of a request from the other contracting party, to provide information that is foreseeably relevant to:

• the determination, assessment and collection of such taxes;
• the recovery and enforcement of tax claims; or
• the investigation or prosecution of tax matters.

The EoI will be made on a case-by-case basis and no fishing expeditions will be allowed. The contracting party requesting the information must provide the other party information such as the identity of the person, the tax purpose for which the information is sought and the tax types concerned, etc. in order to demonstrate the foreseeable relevancy of the information requested.

Each contracting party is required to provide the information even if such information is not needed for its own tax purposes. However, each contracting party shall not be obliged to provide information that is neither held by its authorities nor in the possession or control of persons who are within its geographic area of jurisdiction.

Furthermore, the contracting parties are not obliged to provide the information if:

• they are not able to obtain such information under their own laws for the purposes of the administration or enforcement of tax laws;
• the supply of information would disclose any trade, business, industrial, commercial or professional secret or trade process, etc.

Confidentiality

The TIEAs require both parties to treat the information exchanged as confidential and can only be disclosed to persons or authorities (including courts and administrative bodies) involved in the assessment or collection of, the enforcement or prosecution of, the determination of the appeals in relation to the taxes covered by the TIEAs.

In addition, the contracting party which requested for the information may disclose the information so obtained to any other person / jurisdiction provided that express written consent for the disclosure has been obtained from the contracting party which has provided the information.

Effective date

The TIEA with Sweden will enter into force on the 30th day after the relevant ratification procedures have been completed, while the other five TIEAs will enter into force once the relevant ratification procedures have been completed.