Above: Basseterre (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

St Kitts and Nevis will be signing tax information exchange agreements with Ireland and South Africa following approval by Cabinet, the government announced.

In a post-cabinet briefing, St Kitts Information Minister Nigel Carty said the purpose of the TIEAs was to “promote international co-operation in tax matters through exchange of information.”

“Those negotiation exercises have since been completed leading to the creation of draft agreements waiting to be signed,” Carty said. “At Monday’s Cabinet meeting, final approval was granted for TIEAs to be signed with Ireland and South Africa.”

St Kitts and Nevis has signed similar agreements with 18 jurisdictions, including Aruba, Finland, Australia, Canada, Denmark and the United Kingdom, among others.

“The TIEA framework was developed by the OECD Global Forum Working Group on Effective Exchange of Information which consisted of representatives from OECD Member countries and 11 other countries in the Caribbean and other parts of the world,” Carty said. “The Agreement grew out of the work undertaken by the global community to address harmful tax practices.”

Caribbean countries have increasingly been signing such agreements, with the Cayman Islands most notable for the number of such pacts it has signed.