Finance, Minister Paula Cox has expressed her delight that Bermuda is set to sign a series of Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) with the Nordic group of countries next month.

The group includes Denmark, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Norway and Sweden and the agreements will be signed at a ceremony at the Swedish Embassy in Washington DC on April 16. The tax information exchange agreements are part of a joint campaign by the parties to stop tax evasion and will enable the authorities to access information about anyone seeking to evade payment of tax on income and capital investment and help disclose assets that have not been reported in their home country.

Information to be exchanged includes information on beneficial ownership of companies in the whole ownership chain; settlers, trustees and beneficiaries of trusts, and information held by banks and financial institutions.

"Bermuda has consistently lived up to its commitment to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) without interruption unlike many other jurisdictions that have revived efforts to conclude TIEAs only after being publicly named as uncooperative or as not living up to the commitment to the OECD," said Ms Cox.

"In order to fulfill our commitment, we have established a treaty unit within the Ministry of Finance Headquarters. Upon conclusion of the model TIEA in 2002 Bermuda was one of the first jurisdictions to proactively undertake the process to negotiate TIEAs with both OECD and European Union members. In 2003 Bermuda responded favourably to the request from Australia and similarly thereafter requests from New Zealand, the UK and Mexico.

"In 2006, we entered into negotiation agreements with Germany, the Netherlands, the Nordic group and other countries. Bermuda expects to have attained a total of 12 signed TIEAs within the next several months."