Caribbean Nations Renew Calls For Level Playing Field Over Tax

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

22 November 2001

Senior government officials from several of the Caribbean jurisdictions included on the OECD's harmful tax competition list have renewed their calls for a 'level playing field' as regards tax practices and information exchange, arguing that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has painted a misleading picture of the changes which have been made to its demands.

'There is no level playing field because we are being asked to do what their own members are not doing,' argued the Bahamas Finance Minister, Sir William Allen. 'Without a level playing field, it is us who will suffer from harmful tax competition.'

In a report issued last week, the OECD announced that following consultation, it has extended the deadline for listing 'uncooperative' jurisdictions from the end of this month to February 2002, and has dropped provisions designed to prevent 'ring fencing', where offshore centres grant tax breaks to businesses with no physical presence there.

However, the Caribbean jurisdictions feel that not enough has been done to take their concerns into account, and are unhappy that there has been no shift on the issues of transparency and information exchange. 'This report is written very cleverly,' explained Sir Ronald Sanders, Antigua's chief tax negotiator. 'It sounds as if the OECD has sat down with us, has listened to what we have to say and has modified its report to take account of everything we asked for. That is not the case.'

Caribbean officials from the spotlighted jurisdictions are maintaining their stance, and have told the OECD that they are prepared to make a commitment to implementing changes to their tax regimes if these changes are demanded of all jurisdictions, including OECD members, and if they are permitted to contribute properly to discussions on the definition and application of transparency and information exchange.

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