T&T STILL ON EU TAX BLACKLIST

TRINIDAD and Tobago is now one of only 12 countries in the world on the European Union’s tax blacklist.

The EU has just removed The Bahamas, Belize, Turks and Caicos Islands and Seychelles from its dreaded blacklist.

But T&T is still there, with other countries that, according to the EU, are “not cooperative on tax matters.”

The blacklist is made up of countries that do not have effective and transparent tax governance, fair taxation and measures to prevent tax base erosion and profit shifting.

The European Union has pleaded with T&T and other defaulting countries to “improve their legal framework in order to resolve the identified issues.”

In recent years, the Government took four pieces of legislation to Parliament aimed at removing T&T from the blacklist.

But the EU later identified 23 other issues.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert has said the major outstanding issue is non-compliance with the Global Forum rating under the Exchange of Information Request and Automatic Exchange of Information standards.

Imbert said a year ago that the Government is getting technical assistance on the matter.

He promised that relevant legislation would be introduced by the end of 2023.

The EU has also found T&T to be deficient in legal and administrative frameworks for the exchange of information and the use of country-by-country reports.

In a new report, the EU explained why the four countries were removed from the blacklist.

The list is updated twice a year, in February and October, by Finance Ministers of the European Union.