Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on average how long the Government takes to negotiate double taxation treaties.

The Government would expect a full negotiation of a double taxation agreement to take between one and two years. However, there are so many variables involved in the process and Government does not keep records of the average length of negotiations.

Negotiations are usually split into “rounds”, with one country visiting the other for a week to discuss the negotiated text. A negotiation may have just one round where the positions of both countries are largely aligned, but where there are particularly complex issues involved it might require several rounds.

The time between rounds will also vary, depending on such factors as the resources and availability of negotiators in both countries as well as the political environment, which can occasionally reset a country’s negotiating position.