Yesterday Jersey said it had signed a DTA with Luxembourg – a country known worldwide as a centre for the domiciliation and administration of funds.
The signing ceremony took place in London on 8 April 2013 between Eddie Teare MHK, the Isle of Man’s treasury minister, and Béatrice Kirsch, chargé d’affaires a.i. of Luxembourg.
Luxembourg’s DTAs with Jersey and the Isle of Man follow news late last week that five major European countries are about to enter into a “multilateral tax information exchange agreement” – including the UK.
Following the announcement, Luxembourg was one of a few further countries within the EU to say it also planned to open its financial system to further transparency. In fact the day before the announcement from the five EU countries, Luxembourg’s finance minister Luc Frieden reportedly told Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper he wanted to “strengthen co-operation with foreign tax authorities”.
The DTA is the tenth signed by the Isle of Man and the 37th agreement the country has signed which meets OECD international standard on tax co-operation.
