Following the signing of tax information exchange agreements with Finland, Greenland and Faroe Islands, Gibraltar has now signed 13 such agreements and has accordingly been transferred by the OECD onto its white list.

The white list is a list of countries that have signed 12 or more agreements, which is a new criteria decided by G20 and OECD in April this year.

Gibraltar has waited for the establishment of a level playing field before actively seeking out partner countries with which to sign agreements. This was achieved in March when Switzerland, Luxembourg and Austria, who as full member of the OECD had not yet themselves accepted the tax information exchange principle, did so.

Accordingly, in April 2009 the government declared a 20 November target date to sign at least 12 agreements and pass to the white list.

At its most recent meeting, the G20 said it was not just a matter of signing 12 agreements, but also of who they were signed with. Countries that had sought to reach the number quickly by signing TIEAs with other less economically relevant countries would face new difficulties.

The government will shortly be publishing a bill to put these agreements into practice. The act is expected to be law by the end of this year

Gibraltar has to date signed TIEAs with the following countries: US, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, UK, Denmark, Austria, France, Portugal, Finland, Greenland and Faroe Islands.