Seychelles Needs To Redouble BEPS Efforts: UN Expert

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

09 April 2018

The Seychelles has been told to deploy more resources to implement recommendations from the OECD on base erosion and profit shifting.

Ingela Willfors, a United Nations tax expert from the Swedish Ministry of Finance, held discussions on implementation with the Seychelles' Minister of Finance, Trade, and Economic Planning and in particular on revising the territory's double tax agreements through the BEPS multilateral instrument to implement tax treaty-related measures to prevent BEPS.

Willfors said, following an earlier five-day visit, she had identified that Seychelles currently lacks the resources and capacity to effectively implement the OECD's recommendations. She recommended that authorities focus on those measures that must be implemented to meet international best standards – namely the BEPS minimum standards, on preventing treaty abuse, the introduction of country-by-country reporting rules, improving dispute resolution mechanisms, and tackling harmful tax practices.

The Seychelles has for the past two years received support from Sweden on BEPS, as part of a twinning program.

The Government said the territory this year faces the prospect of a peer review on its implementation of measures to prevent treaty abuse (BEPS Action 5); on countering harmful tax practices more effectively (Action 6); and the implementation of country-by-country reporting (Action 13). It anticipates that its measures to improve dispute resolution mechanisms will be reviewed in two years.

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