Saint Lucia to vigorously pursue tax agreements with international counterparts
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Contact: Claudia Monlouis
Thursday, April 22, 2010 – Prime Minister Honourable Stephenson King has said that government intends to aggressively pursue a number of Tax agreements this year. Saint Lucia will sign Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA) with Aruba and Germany this month, and in May, with the Nordic Countries namely, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Prime Minister King in his recent budget address, updated the nation on where Saint Lucia stood in regard to honouring Tax Information Exchange Agreements. Saint Lucia has signed Tax Information Exchange Agreements with the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles and Denmark.
A TIEA was initialled on June 28, 2009, with Canada, and is now expected to be signed during the second half of 2010. In addition, efforts are continuing to negotiate agreements with Monaco, Japan, Austria, New Zealand, and Liechtenstein.
“Although Saint Lucia would have substantially exceeded the benchmark of twelve signed Tax Information Exchange Agreements, the challenge to satisfy an ever shifting compliance standard, continues unabated, as the focus shifts from the number of agreements signed, to implementation capacity, and the conduct of the peer review process, which will be undertaken in two phases: phase one (1) will examine the legal and regulatory framework in each jurisdiction, while phase two (2) will evaluate the implementation of standards in practice.”
Prime Minister King noted that the signing of double-taxation agreements can significantly enhance our international competitiveness by improving prospects for foreign investments. |
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