Artikel 5

1. The competent authority of a Contracting Party shall provide upon request by the other Contracting Party information for the purposes referred to in Article 1. Such information shall be provided without regard to whether the requested Contracting Party needs such information for its own tax purposes or the conduct being investigated would constitute a crime under the laws of the requested Contracting Party if it had occurred in the territory of the requested Contracting Party.
2. If the information in the possession of the competent authority of the requested Contracting Party is not sufficient to enable it to comply with the request for information, that Contracting Party shall use at its own discretion all applicable information gathering measures necessary to provide the requesting Contracting Party with the information requested, notwithstanding that the requested Contracting Party may not, at that time, need such information for its own tax purposes.
3. If specifically requested by the competent authority of the requesting Contracting Party, the competent authority of the requested Contracting Party shall provide information under this Article, to the extent allowable under its laws, in the form of depositions of witnesses and authenticated copies of original records.
4. Each Contracting Party shall ensure that its competent authorities, in accordance with the terms of this Agreement, have the authority to obtain and provide upon request:
a) information held by banks, other financial institutions, and any person, including nominees and trustees, acting in an agency or fiduciary capacity;
b) information regarding the beneficial ownership of companies, partnerships and other persons, including in the case of collective investment funds and schemes, information on shares, units and other interests; in the case of trusts, information on settlors, trustees, protectors and beneficiaries; and in the case of foundations, information on founders, members of the foundation council and beneficiaries;
provided that this Agreement does not create an obligation on the Contracting Parties to obtain or provide ownership information with respect to publicly traded companies or public collective investment funds or schemes unless such information can be obtained without giving rise to disproportionate difficulties.
5. Any request for information shall be formulated with the greatest detail possible and shall specify in writing:
a) the identity of the person under examination or investigation;
b) the period for which the information is requested;
c) the nature of the information sought and the form in which the requesting Contracting Party would prefer to receive it;
d) the tax purpose for which the information is sought;
e) the reasons for believing that the information requested is foreseeably relevant to the administration and enforcement of the tax law of the requesting Contracting Party, with respect to the person identified in subparagraph a) of this paragraph;
f) grounds for believing that the information requested is held in the requested Contracting Party or is in the possession of or obtainable by a person within the jurisdiction of the requested Contracting Party;
g) to the extent known, the name and address of any person believed to be in possession of the requested information;
h) a statement that the request is in conformity with the laws and administrative practices of the requesting Contracting Party, that if the requested information was within the jurisdiction of the requesting Contracting Party then the competent authority of the requesting Contracting Party would be able to obtain the information under the laws of the requesting Contracting Party and that the request is in conformity with this Agreement;
i) a statement that the requesting Contracting Party has pursued all means available in its own territory to obtain the information, except those that would give rise to disproportionate difficulties.
6. The competent authority of the requested Contracting Party shall acknowledge receipt of the request to the competent authority of the requesting Contracting Party and shall use its best endeavours to forward the requested information to the requesting Contracting Party with the least reasonable delay.