Tax deal signed with Guernsey

New Zealand has signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement with Guernsey - one of the Channel Islands off Britain, known as a tax haven.

Revenue Minister Peter Dunne signed the agreement in London overnight New Zealand time with Guernsey, a British crown dependency.

"The Tax Information Exchange Agreement with Guernsey will help to encourage greater co-operation between tax authorities," said Dunne.

Tax Information Agreements are bilateral international treaties that set up a way for tax authorities to request tax records, business books and accounts, bank information, ownership information, and other tax-related information from each other for purposes of preventing tax avoidance and evasion.

Growing numbers of agreements were being made as countries adopted Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and United Nations standards for exchange of tax-related information, Dunne said.

This month an agreement was signed with the Cook Islands. That country was previously on an OECD blacklist of uncooperative tax havens but was removed after pledging to improve its tax and regulatory systems.

NZPA