Turkey's Finance Ministry is signing a number of agreements with several countries to exchange information on following the money sent abroad.

The Finance Ministry will sign an agreement to prevent double taxation with Switzerland on Friday.

Turkey's Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek and his Swiss counterpart Hans Rudolf Merz will put their signatures under the agreement.

After the agreement takes effect, Turkey will ask Switzerland to inform itself about the bank accounts of Turks. The implementation can go back to five years ago.

The agreement also foresees tax exemption for contracting services that do not last longer than six months, and taxation of incomes from real estates in the state where those properties are located.

Earlier, the ministry reached an agreement with Luxembourg, another country where secret bank accounts are opened the most.

The agreement will take effect after Turkey's and Luxembourg's parliaments approve it. Turkey expects it to take effect at the beginning of 2011.

Turkey is revising its agreements on prevention of double taxation with Austria and Belgium in line with the information exchange protocol. It expects to sign an agreement on
prevention of double taxation with Brazil.

The Finance Ministry is also planning to give priority to signing such agreements with island countries, including the Bahamas, Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Jersey, Bermuda and Man Island.


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