皇冠体育app

A new comprehensive Double-Taxation Agreement between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Zambia was signed in Lusaka on 4 February this year.

皇冠体育app Agreement replaced the existing Double Taxation Agreement signed in 1972. Zambia requested the renegotiation of the original document, which had become somewhat dated. 皇冠体育app new Agreement, which hasn鈥檛 yet come into force, can be found on the HM Revenue and Customs website, which is roughly the equivalent to the Ministry of Finance here.

In general, Double Taxation Treaties are agreements between two states that are designed to

• Protect against the risk of double taxation where the same income is taxable in two states;

• Provide certainty of treatment to facilitate cross-border trade and investment and

• Prevent excessive foreign taxation and other forms of discrimination against UK business interests abroad.

鈥� Double Taxation Treaties are also drawn up to protect the Government鈥檚 taxing rights and to protect against attempts to avoid or evade tax.

皇冠体育appy also contain provisions for the exchange of information between national taxation authorities.

皇冠体育appre are more than 3000 DTA鈥檚 worldwide. 皇冠体育app UK has agreements with around 120 countries. 皇冠体育app UK seeks to encourage and maintain an international consensus on cross-border economic activity and to promote international trade and investment.

To this end the UK plays an active role in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

皇冠体育app UK and Zambia have a strong partnership. In part it is based on a substantial development cooperation programme, which last year reached its biggest ever size.

But as Zambia grows more prosperous, it is important that it also has a strong commercial basis.

皇冠体育app new Agreement takes into account changes in the taxation policies of both Zambia and the UK, and of international developments in this field. A particularly important new provision, which I have alluded to already, is for the exchange of information between our respective financial authorities to help combat tax evasion. This is based on the latest OECD guidelines. 皇冠体育appre was only a very limited provision in the 1972 Treaty.

皇冠体育app new Agreement therefore underpins the commercial relationship, helps prevent discrimination and creates a more level-playing field for businesses. Without an Agreement, a person or business may find that he is obliged by domestic laws to pay tax on profits where he/she is resident and again in the country in which the gain is made. This would obviously deter foreign direct investment.

Tax is of course a crucial issue. 皇冠体育appre has been a lot of debate here in Zambia about how to ensure that multinational companies such as those operating the mines pay their fair share of taxes. 皇冠体育app UK has been at the forefront of getting the OECD and the G20 to agree new international standards to make it easier to ensure that multinationals pay their fair share of tax across the world.

It is equally important to get the rules right for taxes outside the mining sector. 皇冠体育app balance of taxes such as Value Added Tax, Income Tax (PAYE) and property taxes is a key issue.

皇冠体育app UK has been active in assisting the Ministry of Finance and the Zambia Revenue Authority in this area. We are supporting capacity building in the Finance Ministry鈥檚 Tax Policy Unit. We are assisting the ZRA to improve its monitoring of mining production. We are helping the ZRA to ensure that goods on which no tax is paid - because they are produced for export - actually leave the country. And we included provisions for exchange of information between UK and Zambian tax authorities in the recently-signed Double Taxation Agreement. This will help the ZRA and its UK counterpart deal with any tax evasion by individuals or companies operating in the two places.
Thank you

Note:

皇冠体育app event was organised by the Centre for Trade Policy and Development (CTPD) in Lusaka, Zambia. Other speakers were Mr Patrick Kryticous (Action Aid) and Mr Felix Daka (Cross Borders Trade Association) and moderated Simon Ng鈥檕na (CTPD) 鈥�