NASSAU, Bahamas – In addition to its Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) established with the United States, Monaco and San Marino, The Bahamas has completed technical agreements with eight additional countries, Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham advised Parliament Thursday.  

The Prime Minister’s remarks came during debate on the Government’s Bill to amend the Criminal Justice International Co-operation Act. The amendment Bill passed by Parliament Thursday, extends the scope of the Act by enabling assistance to be granted to foreign countries in tax matters.  

Under the Act, The Bahamas provides assistance in criminal matters to countries with which it does not have a treaty to provide mutual legal assistance.  

The Act, brought into force in 2000 in response to the “blacklisting” of The Bahamas by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), is one of the most important tools that The Bahamas has available in its arsenal in the global fight against money laundering, narcotics trafficking and the financing of terrorism.  

Mr. Ingraham said: “We expect to be in a position to begin signing TIEAs during the period beginning the last week in this month (October) leading up toward the end of this year.  

“We are not yet in a position to publicly disclose the names of the countries that we have concluded technical agreements with because they too, have their own internal processes that they must go through in order to conclude formal TIEAs.”  

Outlining the effect of the amendment Bill, Attorney General the Hon. Brent Symonette pointed out that the change to the law of The Bahamas is in line with “prevailing international standards.”  

He noted that there has been a shift from the “traditional approach towards the assistance in the collection of taxes”, explaining that in common law countries, the general principle of international tax law was that a country was not obligated to assist another country in the collection and enforcement of its taxes – a principle countries have now moved away from.  

Back in March 2002, The Bahamas made a commitment to improve the transparency of its tax and regulatory systems and to establish effective exchange of information for tax matters with the OECD by December 31, 2005.

Regarding current OECD requirements Mr. Symonette said, “it is the intention of the Government of The Bahamas to conclude negotiations on sufficient agreements by the end of the year to be fully compliant with the OECD standard.