The Netherlands Antilles State Secretary of Finance, Alex Rosaria, announced at the weekend that he will hold talks with the European Commission regarding the inclusion of the Netherlands Antilles on negative fiscal lists of some European Union (EU) member states.
Among others, Portugal, Poland, Greece and Italy consider the Netherlands Antilles as a “tax haven” and have included the Netherlands Antilles on their “black lists".
The talks with the Directorate General on Tax matters of European Commission are aimed at bringing to an end the inclusion of the Netherlands Antilles on such lists, Rosaria explained.
“Calling us a tax haven is inaccurate and a totally misguided labeling of our country. In fact, the Netherlands Antilles complies with OECD and EU regulations making it a first class international business and financial services jurisdiction,” the Finance Secretary stated.
He went on to express surprise that certain EU countries can have tax treaties and/or be in the process of negotiating such agreements with the Netherlands Antilles, while other members of the same union consider it a tax haven.
Giving an example, he revealed that the Netherlands Antilles will be signing a Tax Information Exchange Agreement with Spain in June 2008, and is negotiating similar treaties with Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
“These countries don’t negotiate or sign treaties with tax havens or secrecy jurisdictions. It should become clear that he Netherlands Antilles complies with the same standards applicable to EU members. We will therefore not permit that the Netherlands Antilles is held to a higher tax standard than what is demanded of the EU,” Rosaria concluded.
Talks with the European Commission will be held on 15th May in The Hague.
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