India, Liechtenstein sign tax information exchange agreement

India and Liechtenstein today announced the signing of a tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) at Bern, Switzerland.

Chitra Narayanan, Indian ambassador in Switzerland and Madame Doris Frick, ambassador of Liechtenstein in Switzerland signed the agreement on behalf of Liechtenstein.

Salient features of the agreement (TIEA) with Liechtenstein are:

• The agreement is based on international standard of transparency and exchange of information;
• Information must be foreseeable and relevant to the administration and enforcement of the domestic laws of the contracting parties concerning taxes covered by the agreement;
• There is a specific provision that the requested party should use its information gathering measures to obtain the requested information even though that party may not need such information for its own tax purposes;
• There is also a specific provision for providing banking and ownership information;
• It provides for the representatives of the competent authority of the requesting party to enter the territory of the requested party to interview individuals and examine records;
• The agreement has specific provisions for protecting the confidentiality of the information obtained under the agreement. Information is to be treated as secret and can be disclosed to only specified person or authorities, which are tax authorities or its oversight body. However, the information may be used for other purposes with the express consent of the competent authority of the supplying state;
• The agreement should be entered into force one month from the notification. On entering into force, information can be exchanged if it pertains to taxable periods beginning on or after 1 April 2013; and
• The agreement provides for the exchange of documents or information created in or derived from a date preceding 1 April 2013, that are foreseeably relevant to a request relating to tax years beginning on or after 1 April 2013.