Category: Caribbean

Fiscal policy key to overcoming pandemic’s impact on LatAm: UN agency

The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has stated that Latin American SANTIAGO, July 6 (Xinhua) — Latin American countries must turn to effective fiscal policy to cushion the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and reactivate local economies, the United Nations Economic… – Continue reading

Dominica removed from EU tax haven blacklist

The European Union has removed the Caribbean island of Dominica from its list of uncooperative jurisdictions in tax matters. Dominica changed its tax rules to comply with EU requirements meant to reduce the risks of tax evasion, the EU said in a statement. Dominica implemented its commitments and addressed EU… – Continue reading

Corporate Canada’s Pile of Cash in Offshore Tax Havens Has Hit $353 Billion For the First Time in History

Luxembourg, Barbados and Bermuda are three of Canada’s top five destinations in the world for corporate cash After exploding to record levels under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, the amount of money Corporate Canada is funneling through offshore tax havens has hit a new all-time high. According to data newly released… – Continue reading

Caribbean Banks support passage of tax bill amendments

THE Caribbean Association of Banks (CAB) has joined the growing list of advocates for the expedited passage of urgent legislation to strengthen this country’s international tax compliance. “Non-compliance with Global Forum Standards and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations increases the sovereign risk profile of not only the jurisdiction (TT)… – Continue reading

Corporate America flees zero-tax Caribbean havens after crackdown

Many U.S. multinational corporations have packed up or are choosing to open subsidiaries in low-tax, rather than no-tax, countries that are seen as more legitimate than the formerly popular island destinations of the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas. They’re fleeing in response to regulations from the European Union that require… – Continue reading

Crypto Islands as Double Offshore

There is a small island in the Caribbean … You immediately imagine relaxation, a beach, palm trees. However today in these small areas a really big crypto history is being created. The crypto business is increasingly mastering the jurisdiction of “dwarf” states, such as Cyprus, Malta, Gibraltar, The Republic of… – Continue reading

A Caribbean Perspective: Tax Rules We Can’T Meet, Unity We Must Not Avoid

The financial services sector of Caribbean jurisdictions – and other parts of the developing world – have been under continuous assault by the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since the mid-1990s. This assault will peak again in a month’s time when financial institutions… – Continue reading

Parliament approves Bitcoin BCH payments for Antigua and Barbuda citizenship

Securing citizenship in the Eastern Caribbean jewel of Antigua and Barbuda is now easier for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) investors. Early this week, the parliament of Antigua and Barbuda unanimously approved the resolution to amend the Citizenship by Investment Program (CIP) Act, allowing for payments to be made in Bitcoin BCH… – Continue reading

UK beneficial ownership vote alarms Overseas Territories; financial services vital for several islands

A vote by the UK parliament to insist that Britain’s Overseas Territories introduce publicly available beneficial ownership registers by December 31, 2020, has sparked anger and dismay within these autonomous, mainly small island, jurisdictions. An amendment to a UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill requires the British government to impose… – Continue reading

EU to remove two Caribbean countries from blacklist of tax havens

BRUSSELS, Germany (CMC) — Two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries are likely to be removed from the European Union list of tax havens next week, when European finance ministers meet here. The Bahamas and St Kitts-Nevis had in the past strongly objected to be included in the list put out by… – Continue reading

Dpm Pledges ‘Most Stringent Controls’ On Ownership Registry

THE Deputy Prime Minister yesterday promised that the proposed Beneficial Ownership registry will have “the most stringent controls”, amid industry concerns over the lack of prior consultation. K P Turnquest told Tribune Business that it was “not an unreasonable guess” to suggest that the Bahamas would follow the Cayman Islands’… – Continue reading

Blacklisting looms over different onshore, offshore tax rates – PM

The European Union is reportedly threatening to blacklist Antigua and Barbuda if it does not harmonise its tax rates for onshore and offshore financial services. This is according to Prime Minister Gaston Browne who was speaking in the parliament on Tuesday during the presentation of the Automatic Exchange of Financial… – Continue reading

Double Taxation Agreement Between Barbados and Italy In Effect

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Thursday November 2, 2017 – The Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) between the Government of Barbados and the Italian Republic has entered into force. The instruments of ratification for the Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation with Respect to Taxes on Income and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion… – Continue reading

BEPS Actions 8-10 Most Important For Latin American, Caribbean States

The Inter-American Center of Tax Administration (CIAT) has released a new statement summarizing the feedback from Latin American and Caribbean countries from ongoing discussions on countering base erosion and profit shifting. CIAT said it and a number of regional and international organizations have brought together policymakers from countries in the… – Continue reading

Slow UK aid for hurricane-hit islands linked to tax haven ties

Anguilla’s ex-attorney general says UK government may fear exposing its role in Caribbean territories’ tax arrangements Aid offered by the British government to its hurricane-battered territories in the Caribbean has been dismissed as “derisory” by a former attorney general of one of the worst-hit islands. Rupert Jones, who completed a… – Continue reading

This Caribbean Bank Wants Chinese Money No One Else Will Touch

The global campaign against money laundering combined with the Panama Papers made the Caribbean islands of sun, sand and offshore banking a near no-go zone for the world’s biggest banks. So the British Virgin Islands has a solution: a bank to service offshore companies, many of them from China, locked… – Continue reading

Offshore jurisdictions asked to embrace transparency

In a world of data breaches and political unrest, the concept of confidentiality faces a certain death, warned British Virgin Islands lawyer Tim Prudhoe on Tuesday. Rather than fear the future, the Kobre & Kim partner advised offshore tax jurisdictions to embrace transparency and find benefit in a turbulent world…. – Continue reading

St Kitts-Nevis joins Antigua-Barbuda in rejecting Illinois tax haven label

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (WINN) — Efforts by one American state to officially label St Kitts and Nevis a foreign tax haven are being strongly objected to by the federation’s foreign affairs minister, Mark Brantley, thus joining Antigua and Barbuda in a similar protest. A proposed House Bill 3419 in the… – Continue reading

CARICOM seeks FATCA delay, but law may prove irrelevant

The Caribbean Community is looking at spending nearly quarter of a million dollars on a Washington-based consultant to lobby the Trump administration about the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act. Cayman appears unlikely, however, to be affected by any lobbying – or even FATCA repeal – in the wake of last… – Continue reading

Caribbean Association Of Banks Urges Compliance With FATCA

The Caribbean Association of Banks (CAB) has expressed concern about the number of countries in the region which have not yet put in place inter-governmental agreements (IGAs) with the United States on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). It said it was therefore renewing the call for Caribbean countries… – Continue reading

Senators tell new US treasury secretary nominee to eliminate Cayman Islands and other tax havens

WASHINGTON, USA — Members of the United States Senate, questioning the new Trump administration nominee for Treasury Secretary on Thursday, asked Steve Mnuchin how he intends to close down Caribbean tax havens, specifically naming the Cayman Islands. The Senate panel demanded details on how the new secretary expects to close… – Continue reading

BANKING UPROAR LINGERS

The row between commercial banks in the Caribbean and the larger ones on the American mainland just would not go away. In the past week, finance officials from across the globe and from multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) flew to Antigua for a conference on the… – Continue reading

Pakistan to seek offshore companies information from nine tax havens

Pakistan’s authorities are making efforts to seek information about tax details of 270 offshore companies from nine known tax havens around the globe where 444 individuals have invested billions of dollars, and, finally, their names appeared through PanamaLeaks, The News has learnt. The cases of 444 individuals involving nine jurisdictions… – Continue reading

Bahamas files: New leak exposes offshore ‘tax haven’ dealings of politicians, companies

Five months after the Panama Papers exposed the offshore dealings of government leaders and influential people, a new leak of 1.3 million files has revealed the names of individuals associated with companies registered in the Bahamas, a notorious tax haven. The files – received by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung… – Continue reading

Private sector groups urge passage of FATCA legislation

Seven private sector organisations Tuesday called on the Trinidad and Tobago government and opposition to put aside their differences and ensure the country meets the September 30 deadline for the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). They also warned that failure to do so could result in ”serious negative consequences”… – Continue reading

Government, Opposition to meet on FACTA legislation

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Sept 10, CMC – Government and opposition legislators are to meet here on Monday as the deadline for meeting the September 30 deadline for passing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance ACT (FATCA). Caribbean financial executives have in the past bemoaned what they deem as an uneven… – Continue reading

Belize offshore secrecy ill at ease with UK politics and US authorities

How US tax inspectors fear firms and individuals are using Lord Ashcroft’s bank to hide assets and evade tax It was a stern message David Cameron took with him on his visit to the Caribbean last September: “If we’re to beat corruption, we need transparency.” And some in the region… – Continue reading

Banks to hand over offshore tax files

The Trudeau government has won a round in its battle against offshore tax cheats. Two banks have agreed to give the federal revenue minister information from the accounts of a Caribbean financial institution to help the government crack down on Canadian tax evaders. The Federal Court of Canada has approved… – Continue reading

Minister Of Finance Visits Kyoto, Japan – OECD BEPS Process And Tax Agreement United Arab Emirates

As part of the aim to sustainably meet the highest international standards in the tax field, the Minister of Finance Dr. Jose Jardim has joined the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting agenda of the OECD. In this context, the section with regard to the Common Reporting Standards concerning the automatic… – Continue reading

Canada willingly makes tax deals with tax havens

The seeds of Canadian corporations hiding billions of dollars in offshore tax havens were sown more than 40 years ago, after the Canadian government pursued a series of tax treaties with tiny Caribbean and European nations. The 92 tax treaties now signed with countries such as Barbados, Jamaica and Malta… – Continue reading

Deals Canada signed to catch tax cheats allow billions in taxes to escape

Montreal-based clothing maker Gildan earned $396 million in profit last year, but paid just over $6 million in cash taxes — a rate of about two per cent. Drug maker Valeant, based in nearby Laval, Que., booked $1.1 billion in profit in 2014 but paid only $110 million in tax…. – Continue reading

Brazil, Jamaica and Uruguay expand their capacity to fight international tax avoidance and evasion

Jamaica and Uruguay today signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters and Brazil deposited its instrument of ratification of the Convention on the occasion of the launch of the OECD’s Latin American and Caribbean Regional Programme and the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting. Jamaica and Uruguay became… – Continue reading

UN urges countries to stem tide of firms profit-shifting to tax havens

Unctad thinktank shows firms funnelled $221bn in 2015 through low-tax jurisdictions such as the Netherlands and tax havens in the Caribbean The UN has urged governments to stem the flow of funds to tax havens after companies funnelled $221bn (£152bn) into countries with low tax rates last year. The Netherlands… – Continue reading

Why billions of tax dollars end up offshore

ANALYSIS: Despite some action from both Labor and Coalition governments, multinationals are still using accounting tricks to avoid paying Australian tax.While politicians in Canberra bicker over whether or not to cut company tax, or whether it’s acceptable for effective income tax rates to rise through bracket creep, glaring leaks in… – Continue reading

Adventures in tax avoidance: Canada’s deep offshore tax haven connections

Much of the activity is legal, but it siphons away billions in tax revenue from government coffers The massive Panama Papers data leak shines a light not only on the dirty money being shuffled through tax havens, but also on the legal and common use of offshore accounts to significantly… – Continue reading

US, Like Panama, Is ‘Playground for the World’s Dirty Money’

Panama and the U.S. have at least one thing in common: Neither has agreed to new international standards to make it harder for tax evaders and money launderers to hide their money. Over the past several years, amid increased scrutiny by journalists, regulators and law enforcers, the global tax-haven landscape… – Continue reading

IMF cautions on wider impacts of loss of correspondent banking in Belize and the Caribbean

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued its most recent report on Belize on Monday, following its September 2014 mission to the country, led by Jacques Bouhga-Hagbe. Much of the economic data included in the report has been the subject of recent discussions in Parliament in the context of the 2016-2017… – Continue reading

Global tax enforcement puts Cayman in the crosshairs

The investigation and prosecution of tax evasion has, in the last decade, grown from a specialised subcategory of law enforcement into a first-tier policy concern for the global community.Starting with the US government’s crackdown on Swiss bank UBS in 2008, there has been a steady drumbeat of news about prosecutions… – Continue reading

20 Caribbean, Latin American Nations Named Major Money Laundering Countries

Twenty Caribbean and Latin American nations have been named by the U.S. as “major money laundering” countries in the 2016 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) from the U.S. State Department released Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2016. A major money laundering is defined by statute as one “whose financial institutions engage… – Continue reading

Would the real tax havens please stand

“It is tantamount to an economic blockade”. That’s how Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, described the current withdrawal from Caribbean indigenous and offshore banks of correspondent relationships by US banks. His sentiments were echoed by Dean Barrow and Freundel Stuart, the prime ministers of Belize and Barbados respectively…. – Continue reading

The biggest loophole of all

Having launched and led the battle against offshore tax evasion, America is now part of the problem DEVIN NUNES raised eyebrows in 2013 when, as chairman of a congressional working group on tax, he urged reforms that would make America “the largest tax haven in human history”. Though he was… – Continue reading

ECCB Governor seeks to speed up foreign banking agreements

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) is seeking to expedite the signing of Intergovernmental Agreements (IGA) that will prevent the loss of correspondent banking relationships (CBR) for commercial banks in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU). Towards this end, Governor of the ECCB, Timothy NJ Antoine sought the assistance of… – Continue reading

GRA convening meeting with private sector on US Act targeting tax evasion

The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is convening a meeting with the private sector on February 16 to discuss FATCA, the US extra-territorial law governing accounts held by US taxpayers overseas. In a notice in today’s Stabroek News, the GRA said that the focus of the meeting will be the Foreign… – Continue reading