Article 7 - POSSIBILITY OF DECLINING A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION - British Virgin Islands

ARTICLE 7 POSSIBILITY OF DECLINING A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION 1. The competent authority of the Requested Party may decline to assist: (a) where the request is not made in conformity with this Agreement, (b) where the Requesting Party has not pursued all means available in its own territory to obtain the information, except where recourse to such means would give rise to disproportionate difficulty; or (c) where the disclosure of the information requested would be contrary to the public policy (ordre public) of the Requested Party. 2. This Agreement shall not impose upon a Contracting Party any obligation to provide information which would disclose any trade, business, industrial, commercial or professional secret or trade process. Information described in paragraph 4 of Article 5 shall not by reason of that fact alone constitute such a secret or process. 3. (a) The provisions of this Agreement shall not impose on a Contracting Party the obligation to obtain or provide information which would reveal confidential communications between a client and an attorney, solicitor or barrister where such communications are: (i) produced for the purposes of seeking or providing legal advice; or (ii) produced for the purposes of use in existing or contemplated legal proceedings. (b) Information held with the intention of furthering a criminal purpose is not subject to legal privilege, and nothing in this Article shall prevent an attorney, solicitor or barrister from providing the name and address of a client where doing so would not constitute a breach of legal privilege. A request for information shall not be refused on the ground that the tax liability giving rise to the request is disputed by the taxpayer. 5. The Requested Party shall not be required to obtain and provide information which if the requested information was within the jurisdiction of the Requesting Party, the competent authority of the Requesting Party would not be able to obtain under its laws or in the normal course of administrative practice. 6. The Requested Party may decline a request for information if the information is requested by the Requesting Party to administer or enforce a provision of the tax law of the Requesting Party or any requirement connected therewith, which discriminates against a citizen of the Requested Party as compared with a citizen of the Requesting Party in the same circumstances.