- 1.
- The competent authority of the requested party shall provide upon request by the requesting party information for the purposes referred to in Article 1. Such information shall be exchanged without regard to whether the requested party needs such information for its own tax purposes or the conduct being investigated would constitute a crime under the laws of the requested party if it had occurred in the territory of the requested party. The competent authority of the requesting party shall only make a request for information pursuant to this Article when it is unable to obtain the requested information by other means, except where recourse to such means would give rise to disproportionate difficulty.
- 2.
- If the information in the possession of the competent authority of the requested party is not sufficient to enable it to comply with the request for information, the requested party shall use at its own discretion all relevant information gathering measures necessary to provide the requesting party with the information requested, notwithstanding that the requested party may not need such information for its own tax purposes.
- 3.
- If specifically requested by the competent authority of the requesting party, the competent authority of the requested party shall provide information under this Article, to the extent allowable under its domestic laws, in the form of depositions of witnesses and authenticated copies of original records.
- 4.
- Each party shall ensure that it has the authority, subject to the terms of Article 1, to obtain and provide, through its competent authority and upon request:
-
- a)information held by banks, other financial institutions, and any person, including nominees and trustees, acting in an agency or fiduciary capacity;
- b)
- (i)information regarding the beneficial ownership of companies, partnerships, foundations and other persons, including in the case of collective investment schemes, information on shares, units and other interests;
- (ii)in the case of trusts, information on settlors, trustees and beneficiaries,
- 5.
- Any request for information shall be formulated with the greatest detail possible in specifying in writing;
-
- a)the identity of the person under examination or investigation;
- b)the period for which the information is requested;
- c)the nature of the information requested and the form in which the requesting party would prefer to receive it;
- d)the tax purpose for which the information is sought;
- e)the reasons for believing that the information requested is foreseeably relevant to tax administration and enforcement of the requesting party, with respect to the person identified in subparagraph a) of this paragraph;
- f)grounds for believing that the information requested is present in the requested party or is in the possession of or obtainable by a person within the jurisdiction of the requested party;
- g)to the extent known, the name and address of any person believed to be in possession or control of the information requested;
- h)a statement that the request is in conformity with the laws and administrative practices of the requesting party, that if the requested information was within the jurisdiction of the requesting party then the competent authority of the requesting party would be able to obtain the information under the laws of the requesting party or in the normal course of administrative practice and that it is in conformity with this Agreement;
- i)a statement that the requesting party has pursued all means available in its own territory to obtain the information, except where that would give rise to disproportionate difficulty.
- 6.
- The competent authority of the requested party shall acknowledge receipt of the request to the competent authority of the requesting party and shall use its best endeavours to forward the requested information to the requesting party with the least reasonable delay.
