Guernsey has signed a tax information exchange agreement with Greece.

It was signed by Guernsey’s chief minister Lyndon Trott (pictured) and Ilias Plaskovitis, secretary general of the Ministry of Finance in Greece.

Plaskovitis signed the agreement during the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, which took place in Singapore on 29 September. The document was then transported back to Guernsey by Rob Gray, Guernsey’s director of income tax, for counter-signature by the chief minister on 8 October.

Trott says: “I am delighted that Guernsey has signed another international tax agreement with an EU member state. I think it is especially symbolic that this agreement was signed, on behalf of Greece, during the course of the Global Forum Meeting, as it is the Global Forum that decides the international standards for exchange of information for tax purposes, which these agreements put into practice.”

Under the terms of the TIEA, Guernsey will, on request, exchange bank and other information relating to both criminal and civil tax matters. It means that Guernsey has now signed a total of 17 TIEAs.

Guernsey continues to negotiate further TIEAs and expects more agreements to be signed before the end of 2010 and into 2011.