On the job

Minister of International Business and Industry Ronald Toppin says Barbados is working towards having its name removed from a European Union blacklist.

Following yesterday’s blacklisting, Toppin said in a press release from his ministry today, that Barbados has already been deemed compliant by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the globally-recognized body for the setting and monitoring of international tax standards.

Minister Toppin said Government was aware of the European Union’s (EU) actions and has been working on addressing the matter appropriately.

“Barbados recently converged its domestic and international corporate tax rates to a range between 5.5 percent, to one per cent, and I am sure that the Honourable Prime Minister and Minister of Finance [Mia Amor Mottley] will have much to say on this matter next Wednesday, as will I during the Budgetary Debate,” the release stated.

The Council of the European Union added ten governments to the five already on its blacklist of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions. The revised list now includes countries such as Aruba, Barbados, Belize and the United Arab Emirates.

According to the statement, the jurisdictions failed to implement commitments that they had made to the European Union by an agreed deadline.

The council also said that it would continue to regularly review and update the list in the coming years to take into account evolving criteria and deadlines for jurisdictions to deliver on their commitments to improving their tax governance.