No. 11 of 2011 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2011

Summary

This Act amends the Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Act, 2003 in the British Virgin Islands, refining how the International Tax Authority (the Authority) exchanges tax information under bilateral Agreements and the EU Directive, and tightening offence provisions for non-compliance and unauthorised disclosure.

• Competent authority: Designates the Financial Secretary as the competent authority for implementing Agreements generally and for the Directive-related Part of the Act.
• Scope of Agreements: Replaces references limited to the 'USA Agreement' with the broader term 'an Agreement', extending the same procedures to any qualifying tax information exchange agreement.
• Authority's powers: Clarifies that anything the Authority does to satisfy a request under an Agreement is treated as an exercise of its powers under the Act, removing doubt about its authority to act.
• Information notices: Extends notice and disclosure obligations under section 5 to cover any person or entity believed to possess or control relevant records, not just persons believed to 'have' them.
• Offences and penalties: Restates and applies offences for failing to comply with an information notice or Authority request, and for unlawfully disclosing (tipping off) that a request has been made, punishable on indictment by a fine of up to one hundred thousand dollars or imprisonment of up to five years, or both.
• Tipping-off provision: Widens the tipping-off offence in section 9 to cover a person who becomes aware of a request in any way, not only one directly involved in the matters to which it relates.

The amendments are largely technical and procedural, tightening the Authority's operational powers and offence provisions rather than introducing new licensing or filing regimes.

Key obligations

• Persons or entities holding or controlling information relevant to a mutual legal assistance tax request must comply with notices issued to them under section 5(1) of the principal Act.
• Persons must comply with requests made by the Authority under its powers pursuant to section 3(4), or commit an offence.
• Persons must not disclose or otherwise reveal, directly or indirectly, that a mutual legal assistance request has been made or that they have become aware of one, as prohibited under section 9(1) (tipping-off offence).

Applies to

persons or entities subject to information requests under the Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Act, the International Tax Authority, the Financial Secretary as competent authority

Related documents

• This document amends Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Act, 2003 (No. 18 of 2003)