Italian-Swiss TIEA Enters Into Force
Italian-Swiss TIEA Enters Into Force
The Italian Ministry of the Economy and Finance has announced that the tax information exchange (TIE) protocol to the existing double tax agreement between Italy and Switzerland, which was signed on February 23 last year, went into effect on July 13, 2016.
The TIE protocol, which covers all types of taxes, specifies that a country cannot refuse to supply the information requested solely on the grounds that the data is held by a bank or other financial institution.
However, a country has to exhaust all of its own internal legal procedures before it can request information from the other. It also has to supply the identity of the person or persons that are the object of its request, the time period over which it requests information, a description of the information it requires, the reason for the request, and, if known, the name and address of the presumed holder of the information.
These requirements are said to have been put in place to avoid any indiscriminate, general “fishing expeditions” for information, although it is also stated that the second list of requirements should not be used to place obstacles in the way of effective TIE between the two countries.
The protocol also confirms that its provisions will apply retrospectively to information that existed on or after its signature date.
