New Zealand’s Revenue Minister Peter Dunne has announced that a tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) has been signed with Gibraltar. The signing took place at a special ceremony in London.

The agreement provides for full exchange of information on civil and criminal tax matters between the two jurisdictions on request. It is wide ranging and includes:

• information regarding the ownership of companies, partnerships, trusts, foundations, “Anstalten” and other persons, including ownership information on all such persons in an ownership chain;

• in the case of trusts, information on settlors, trustees, beneficiaries, and protectors; and

• in the case of foundations, information on founders, members of the foundation council, and beneficiaries.

Requests need to be accompanied by basic supporting information and require that the requested party make a reasonable effort to obtain information not already in its possession, subject to any expenses being borne by the applicant.

*”Recent months have seen a flurry of TIEA signings internationally, as low-tax offshore financial centers seek to achieve a sufficient number of TIEAs to allow them to be seen as meeting the OECD’s standards for transparency and information exchange,”* Dunne said. The new TIEA will come into force once each country has given legal effect to it.