PH hammering out tax treaty with Hong Kong

THE PHILIPPINES is currently working out a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with Hong Kong, Revenue Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares said.

Negotiations for the TIEA are ongoing between the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Hong Kong’s Inland Revenue Department (IRD), Henares told the Inquirer last week.

Henares said she met with her Hong Kong counterpart, the IRD commissioner, on the sidelines of the Sixth International Monetary Fund-Japan High-Level Tax Conference for Asian Countries in Tokyo held from April 7 to 9.

In July 2013, Hong Kong’s Legislative Council passed a bill allowing the Chinese territory to work out tax agreements with other countries.

“TIEAs provide for EoI [exchange of information] by the IRD upon request made by another jurisdiction in relation to the assessment or enforcement of tax matters. Instead of having the EoI provision included as part of the comprehensive agreements for avoidance of double taxation signed by Hong Kong with other jurisdictions before, TIEAs provide for EoI on a stand-alone basis,” the office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region announced on a public news website posted last year.

According to the IRD website, TIEAs “are an important tool in Hong Kong’s efforts to combat tax evasion.” The agreements “provide for the effective exchange of information between Hong Kong and its TIEA partners,” as well as “enhance Hong Kong’s ability to administer and enforce its domestic tax laws.”

Hong Kong signed its first TIEA with the United States in March last year.

Also, the BIR, hopes to seal double taxation agreements with Cambodia, Laos and Burma (Myanmar), as well as Mexico this year, Henares said. Ben O. de Vera