Tax agreement with South Africa

13 July 2011

The Assistant Chief Minister, UK and International Relations, Senator Freddie Cohen, has signed a tax information exchange agreement with South Africa.

The signing took place at the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in London, in the presence of the Deputy High Commissioner, Ms B Qwabe.

Senator Cohen said “The signing of a tax information exchange agreement with South Africa is of particular significance, not only because South Africa is a G20 member country but because business links between Jersey and South Africa are already strong and we believe they will be further strengthened by this agreement.”

Jersey has sought to sign tax information exchange agreements with every one of the 19 G20 member jurisdictions (the 20th member being the European Union). To date, 11 tax information exchange agreements have been signed with G20 members and six more are close to being signed.

This is the 23rd tax information exchange agreement to be signed and will come into force once Jersey and the Republic of South Africa have completed their domestic procedures. In the case of Jersey, these procedures include the ratification of the agreement by the States of Jersey.

The tax information exchange agreement is the same as those previously signed by Jersey with other countries and provides for the exchange of information on request, which has to be formulated in writing in accordance with the terms of the agreement.