BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ONE week ahead of the March 31 deadline, the Federation has made its way onto the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) white list, having signed more than the minimum required documents.
As promised by Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas, yesterday (Mar. 24) the Federation signed the necessary Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) with the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden to be removed from the OECD grey list.
These recently-signed agreements add to the TIEAs already signed by the Federation with Australia, Monaco, The Netherlands, The Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, United Kingdom, Denmark, Belgium, New Zealand and Liechtenstein.
Pressures came down on the nation late last month, when France blacklisted 18 countries located outside of the European Union as “uncooperative” with the OECD demands, including St. Kitts-Nevis.
The French government decided to increase taxes for businesses with subsidiaries in these territories – a move that PM Douglas viewed to be premature and “against the commitment that was made with the OECD countries”.
Today, information of the nation’s compliance with the OECD standards comes as good news with a total of 16 TIEAs signed, exceeding the required minimum of 12. St. Kitts-Nevis is the 24th tax jurisdiction to ascend to the white list since April 2009, following Anguilla and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who have moved to the white list as the 23rd and 25th nations respectively.
A recent release from the Communications Unit from the Office of the Prime Minister states that St. Kitts-Nevis has already initialled or concluded TIEA negotiations with and is awaiting dates for signature with Canada, France, Germany and San Marino.
According to the OECD, the Federation is now considered to have “substantially implemented the standard since April 2009”. Each country has agreed to participate in a peer review of their laws and practices regarding the TIEAs.
According to the schedule of reviews published by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, the countries will undergo reviews of their legal and regulatory framework for exchange of information in 2011 and reviews of their information exchange practices in 2013.
Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration Jeffrey Owens acknowledged the progress made by regional territories to meet the international benchmark, adding that the OECD will be working with the remaining jurisdictions to encourage them in a similar effort.
He stressed that the “real test” will come with the peer review process when the Global Forum can evaluate the quality of these agreements and the extent of the implementation of the standards in practice.
