Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, Jeffrey Owens. Credit: oecd.org
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says three Caribbean countries this week graduated to its so-called white list of jurisdictions that have implemented the internationally agreed tax standard.
Over the past week, Anguilla, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines all signed enough tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) to reach the accepted benchmark of 12 TIEAs with OECD member countries.
“Accordingly, Anguilla, St Kitts and Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines become the 23rd, 24th and 25th jurisdictions to move into the category of jurisdictions that are considered to have substantially implemented the standard since April 2009,” said a statement on the website of the Paris-based OECD.
Last year, the three countries were among 31 jurisdictions placed on a “grey list” of jurisdictions that had committed to the internationally agreed tax standard, but had not yet substantially implemented.
Anguilla, which signed agreements with Australia and Germany last Friday, had previously signed 11 other TIEAs.
St Kitts and Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines on Wednesday signed agreements with the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
“These agreements add to agreements St Kitts and Nevis had already signed with Australia, Monaco, The Netherlands, The Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, United Kingdom, Denmark, Belgium, New Zealand and Liechtenstein, bringing their total to 16 agreements,” the OECD statement said.
“St Vincent and the Grenadines has now signed 16 agreements that meet the standard, including its existing agreements with Australia, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Aruba, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Ireland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand,” it added.
Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, Jeffrey Owens, said, there continues to be a great deal of progress as jurisdictions move to sign agreements.
“With Anguilla, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines now reaching this benchmark, almost all of the Caribbean jurisdictions have substantially implemented the standard, and we will be working with the remaining jurisdictions – both in the Caribbean and elsewhere – to encourage them to follow this trend and provide whatever assistance we can.
“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,” he said.
Barbados and the United States Virgin Islands were the only Caribbean States on the OECD’s white list when it was compiled last April. Since then, others, including the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands moved up from the grey list.
Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, Jeffrey Owens. Credit: oecd.org
