Singapore To Exit "Grey List" By Year-End, Says Regulator - Report

Vanessa Doctor

13 September 2009

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will by year-end be removing Singapore from the list of countries that have not taken full steps to co-operate in rooting out tax evaders - the so-called "grey list", according to Dow Jones.

Singapore, home to billions of dollars worth of offshore accounts, is currently signing six bilaterial double-taxation deals with European countries and is looking to close seven more of such agreements in the next months, the publication said.

"When Singapore reaches the threshold of renegotiating 12 DTAs , it will be removed from the grey list," OECD head of international tax cooperation Pascal Saint-Amams was quoted to have said.

Singapore found itself in the OECD grey list in April this year, along with 38 other nations that agreed to step up tax transparency but have yet to effect actual changes. The government is now renegotiating transparency agreements with Australia, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK.

There are around 40 companies that offer private banking services in Singapore.