The Republic of Seychelles and the states of Guernsey in the Channel Islands strengthened their bilateral relations with the signing of a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) that took place last week on December 20.
In a signing ceremony at the Seychelles High Commission in London, Mr. Patrick Pillay, the High Commissioner for Seychelles to the United Kingdom, welcomed the Chief Minister of the states of Guernsey, Deputy Lyndon Trott, and expressed his gratitude to the Guernsey authorities for their cooperation in concluding the agreement.
The signing of this agreement represents Seychellesโ commitment to enforcing the OECDโs Peer Review Report of 2010, the countryโs national effort to attract further foreign direct investment and, as noted by High Commissioner Pillay:
โIt also represents an important commitment for the future, that we, as a small island developing state, are willing to make despite all the challenges that we face, in order to achieve significant progress towards better transparency and exchange of information.โ
In responding to the High Commissionerโs speech, the Chief Minister reiterated the same sentiments, stating that small jurisdictions need to work slightly harder than bigger economies to be more transparent and in the current economic downturn, the resulting transparency will make smaller jurisdictions be seen not as part of the problem, but as part of the global solution. It was also noted that Guernsey has a well-established financial services sector, which is managed in a transparent manner through information-sharing agreements.
Guernsey is the ninth jurisdiction with which Seychelles signed a TIEA. This will further compliment the growing network of Agreements for the Avoidance of Double Taxation that is also expanding.
Seychellesโ priority is to enter TIEAs within the confines of a DTA, however, TIEAs are considered without establishing a DTA, if that jurisdiction provides unilateral relief to residents.