On 29 September 2009, Singapore and Mexico signed a protocol amending their standing agreement for the avoidance of double taxation (“DTA”), incorporating the new internationally agreed Standard for the Exchange of Information upon request. This is the 10th agreement Singapore has signed that incorporates the Standard.

Since endorsing the new internationally agreed Standard for the Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in March 2009, the Ministry of Finance has been re-negotiating existing DTAs and the past couple of months have seen Singapore signing agreements with such countries as Qatar (22 September), Norway (18 September), Austria (15 September), Australia (8 September), the Netherlands (25 August), Denmark (25 August), UK (24 August), New Zealand (24 August), and Belgium (16 July).

This means that Singapore is now 2 short of the requisite 12 agreements under OECD guidelines to be removed from the “grey list” of Tax Havens and promoted to the white list of compliant jurisdictions.

Further reading:
1) News coverage from Factiva.com
2) Tax related news & commentary from CCH Asia Online Library
3) Full text of the signed Protocols from eGazette or IRAS website

Related Posts

• 4 November 2009 -- The Untold Secrets of Tax Havens
• 22 October 2009 -- Income Tax Bill Amendments bring Singapore closer to “white list”