Table Of ContentGlobal Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information GLOBAL FORUM ON TRANSPARENCY AND EXCHANGE
for Tax Purposes
OF INFORMATION FOR TAX PURPOSES
PEER REVIEWS, PHASE 1: LIECHTENSTEIN
The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes is the
multilateral framework within which work in the area of tax transparency and exchange
Peer Review Report
of information is carried out by over 100 jurisdictions which participate in the work of the
Global Forum on an equal footing.
Phase 1
The Global Forum is charged with in-depth monitoring and peer review of the
implementation of the standards of transparency and exchange of information for tax
Legal and Regulatory Framework
purposes. These standards are primarily refl ected in the 2002 OECD Model Agreement
on Exchange of Information on Tax Matters and its commentary, and in Article 26 of the
OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital and its commentary as updated in
2004, which has been incorporated in the UN Model Tax Convention.
LIECHTENSTEIN
The standards provide for international exchange on request of foreseeably relevant
information for the administration or enforcement of the domestic tax laws of a requesting
party. “Fishing expeditions” are not authorised, but all foreseeably relevant information
P
must be provided, including bank information and information held by fi duciaries, e
e
regardless of the existence of a domestic tax interest or the application of a dual r R
e
criminality standard. v
ie
w
All members of the Global Forum, as well as jurisdictions identifi ed by the Global Forum R
e
as relevant to its work, are being reviewed. This process is undertaken in two phases. p
o
Phase 1 reviews assess the quality of a jurisdiction’s legal and regulatory framework for rt P
the exchange of information, while Phase 2 reviews look at the practical implementation of h
a
that framework. Some Global Forum members are undergoing combined – Phase 1 plus se
1
Phase 2 – reviews. The ultimate goal is to help jurisdictions to effectively implement the L
e
international standards of transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes. g
a
All review reports are published once approved by the Global Forum and they thus l an
d
represent agreed Global Forum reports. R
e
g
For more information on the Global Forum for Transparency and Exchange of u
la
Information for Tax Purposes and for copies of the published review reports, please visit to
r
www.oecd.org/tax/transparency and www.eoi-tax.org. y F
ra
m
e
w
Please cite this publication as: ork
OECD (2011), Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes L
IE
Peer Reviews: Liechtenstein 2011: Phase 1: Legal and Regulatory Framework, Global Forum on C
H
Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes: Peer Reviews, OECD Publishing. T
E
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264117860-en N
S
T
This work is published on the OECD iLibrary, which gathers all OECD books, periodicals and statistical EIN
databases. Visit www.oecd-ilibrary.org, and do not hesitate to contact us for more information.
ISBN 978-92-64-11785-3 -:HSTCQE=VV\]ZX:
23 2011 42 1 P
www.oecd.org/publishing
Global Forum
on Transparency
and Exchange
of Information for Tax
Purposes Peer Reviews:
Liechtenstein 2011
PHASE 1
August 2011
(reflecting the legal and regulatory framework
as at May 2011)
This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD.
The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect
the official views of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries or
those of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax
Purposes.
Please cite this publication as:
OECD (2011), Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes Peer
Reviews: Liechtenstein 2011: Phase 1: Legal and Regulatory Framework, Global Forum on
Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes: Peer Reviews, OECD
Publishing.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264117860-en
ISBN 978-92-64-11785-3 (print)
ISBN 978-92-64-11786-0 (PDF)
Series: Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes: Peer Reviews
ISSN 2219-4681 (print)
ISSN 2219-469X (online)
This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any
territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or
area.
Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found on line at: www.oecd.org/publishing/corrigenda.
Revised version, September 2011.
Detail of revisions available at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/23/0/48660491.pdf
© OECD 2011
You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD
publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and
teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgment of OECD as source and copyright owner is given.
All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to [email protected]
Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed
directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at [email protected] or the Centre français d’exploitation du
droit de copie (CFC) at [email protected].
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS –
Table of Contents
About the Global Forum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Information and methodology used for the peer review of Liechtenstein. . . . . . . 9
Overview of Liechtenstein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Recent developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Compliance with the Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
A. Availability of information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
A.1.Ownership and identity information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
A.2.Accounting records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
A.3.Banking information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
B. Access to Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
B.1.Competent Authority’s ability to obtain and provide information. . . . . . . . 60
B.2.Notification requirements and rights and safeguards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
C. Exchanging Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
C.1.Exchange of information mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
C.2.Exchange of information mechanisms with all relevant partners . . . . . . . . 77
C.3.Confidentiality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
C.4.Rights and safeguards of taxpayers and third parties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
C.5.Timeliness of responses to requests for information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
PEER REVIEW REPORT – PHASE1: LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK – LIECHTENSTEIN © OECD 2011
4
– TABLE OF CONTENTS
Summary of Determinations andFactorsUnderlyingRecommendations. . . . 85
Annex1: Jurisdiction’s Response to the Review Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Annex2: List of all Exchange-of-Information Mechanisms inForce. . . . . . . . 91
Annex3: List of all Laws, Regulations andOtherRelevantMaterial . . . . . . . 92
PEER REVIEW REPORT – PHASE1: LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK – LIECHTENSTEIN © OECD 2011
5
ABOUT THE GLOBAL FORUM –
About the Global Forum
The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax
Purposes is the multilateral framework within which work in the area of tax
transparency and exchange of information is carried out by over 100 jurisdic-
tions which participate in the Global Forum on an equal footing.
The Global Forum is charged with in-depth monitoring and peer review of
the implementation of the international standards of transparency and exchange
of information for tax purposes.These standards are primarily reflected in the
2002 OECD Model Agreement on Exchange of Information on Tax Matters
and its commentary, and in Article26 of the OECDModel Tax Convention on
Income and on Capital and its commentary as updated in 2004, which has been
incorporated in the UNModel Tax Convention.
The standards provide for international exchange on request of foreseeably
relevant information for the administration or enforcement of the domestic tax
laws of a requesting party. Fishing expeditions are not authorised but all fore-
seeably relevant information must be provided, including bank information
and information held by fiduciaries, regardless of the existence of a domestic
tax interest or the application of a dual criminality standard.
All members of the Global Forum, as well as jurisdictions identified by
the Global Forum as relevant to its work, are being reviewed. This process
is undertaken in two phases. Phase 1 reviews assess the quality of jurisdic-
tions’ legal and regulatory framework for the exchange of information, while
Phase2 reviews look at the practical implementation of that framework.Some
Global Forum members are undergoing combined – Phase 1 plus Phase 2 –
reviews.The Global Forum has also put in place a process for supplementary
reports to follow-up on recommendations, as well as for the ongoing monitor-
ing of jurisdictions following the conclusion of a review.The ultimate goal is
to help jurisdictions to effectively implement the international standards of
transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes.
All review reports are published once approved by the Global Forum and
they thus represent agreed Global Forum reports.
For more information on the work of the Global Forum on Transparency
and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, and for copies of the published
review reports, please refer to www.oecd.org/tax/transparency.
PEER REVIEW REPORT – PHASE1: LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK – LIECHTENSTEIN © OECD 2011
7
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY –
Executive summary
1. This report summarises the legal and regulatory framework for trans-
parency and exchange of information for tax purposes in Liechtenstein.
2. Liechtenstein committed to the international standards of transpar-
ency and exchange of information for tax purposes on 12 March 2009 and
since then it has been actively engaged in developing a network of interna-
tional agreements which allow for exchange of information for tax purposes.
This has led to signing of 221 agreements since that time, taking the total to
23 agreements which provide for international exchange of information in tax
matters.In general, these recent agreements provide for exchange of informa-
tion to the international standards and 12 are currently in force.Nevertheless,
some jurisdictions have reported that they have approached Liechtenstein
requesting to enter into tax information exchange agreements but have had
some difficulties progressing negotiations. Liechtenstein’s authorities have
indicated that they prefer to establish DTCs, but they are ready to sign TIEAs
without any conditions.
3. Information on the ownership of companies (other than those holding
bearer shares), partnerships, foundations, establishments (Anstalt) is avail-
able. However, the availability of information on all of the beneficiaries of
trusts or trust enterprises (Ttreuunternehmen) is not ensured. Anti-money
laundering legislation does ensure availability of information on beneficiaries
of trusts and trust enterprises, if they hold more than a 25% interest in such
entities. For foreign companies resident for tax purposes in Liechtenstein,
information is only available under the tax law on those owners who are
taxable in Liechtenstein. Concerns are expressed about the availability of
ownership information on companies in the absence of adequate enforcement
provisions ensuring the maintenance of share registers by companies.
1. Consisting of 4 double taxation conventions (DTCs) and 18 tax information exchange
agreements (TIEAs). Additionally, a TIEA with the United States was signed in
December 2008. Liechtenstein also has DTCs with Austria and Switzerland, but
these do not contain provisions allowing for international exchange of information.
PEER REVIEW REPORT – PHASE1: LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK – LIECHTENSTEIN © OECD 2011
8
– EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
4. Liechtenstein allows for the issuance of bearer shares but the mecha-
nisms in place to allow the identification of the owners of such shares are not
sufficient. Due diligence legislation is applicable which imposes a require-
ment to identify the owners of such shares in many cases but it is flawed in
that it does not provide a mechanism for identifying the owners.
5. While full accounting records and associated underlying documen-
tation must be maintained by domestic as well as foreign entities carrying
on commercial activities, accounting information in conformity with the
international standards is not required to be maintained by all entities that
are not engaged in commercial activities such as trusts, trust enterprises and
establishments. Further, the period of time for retention of accounting records
pertaining to some categories of entities not engaged in commercial activities
is not specified in law.
6. In respect of access to information, the recently created domestic
framework gives the Fiscal Authority strong powers to access and exchange
information with its foreign counterparts. However, the affected party is in
all cases to be notified of the international request for information, and this
may unduly prevent or delay the effective exchange of information in urgent
cases.
7. Liechtenstein’s response to the conclusions and recommendations in
this report, as well as its practical implementation of the legal framework, will
be assessed during the Phase2 Peer Review, scheduled for the second half of
2012, provided that Liechtenstein takes the necessary measures to address the
deficiencies identified regarding availability of accounting information and
takes significant steps to address the deficiencies identified regarding avail-
ability of ownership information.In the meantime, a follow up report on the
steps undertaken by Liechtenstein to answer the recommendations made in
this report should be provided to the PRG within six months of the adoption of
this report.
PEER REVIEW REPORT – PHASE1: LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK – LIECHTENSTEIN © OECD 2011
