Gov’t aims to expedite removal from EU jurisdiction list

By Aabigayle McIntosh

The government will rely on the expertise of officials from the Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC), the Organization of National Drug and Money Laundering Control Policy, and other divisions to recommend legislative changes that would remove the country from the European Union’s list of non-compliant jurisdictions.

A team from those two organizations, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and Lawyers from the Ministry of Legal Affairs were invited to the cabinet this week to examine the issue in depth.

Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Lionel Hurst told Reporters Thursday that if they do not move swiftly enough, Antigua and Barbuda will be shifted from one list to another.

He said these professionals were brought to Cabinet to ensure Antigua and Barbuda maintains its corresponding banking relationships and other benefits.

“They are reporting that we must pass certain laws and we must ensure that these laws are being affected. They were very specific about which laws, how the laws are to be changed, and how they are to be policed,” Hurst said.

To ensure we can meet these submissions by the Europeans. There is an institution call the FATF. They are inquiring into how our banks are operating they give reports are these reports will determine whether or not we are in one list of the other,” Hurst said.

He notes the government wants to be fully compliant and to do that they have to make certain changes which the EU has said the country is slow at implementing.

The Parliament will meet next week to look at some of the recommendations from the group.

Antigua and Barbuda was among 12 countries remaining on the EU list of non-cooperative territories for tax purposes, following the bloc’s announcement in February that four countries have been removed from the list.

The Bahamas, Belize, Seychelles and the Turks and Caicos Islands were removed from the non-cooperative jurisdictions list.

In October 2023, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and Seychelles were added to the EU blacklist for issues relating to a negative assessment from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Forum about their exchange of information on request.

Belize and Seychelles have since been removed, following reported rule changes in those countries, for which the OECD Global Forum has granted them both a supplementary review.

As such, they are now considered to be countries that are cooperating with the EU and have pending commitments.

The EU Council said then it was regretful that the 12 remaining countries were “not yet cooperative on tax matters, inviting them to improve their legal framework to resolve the identified issues.

Trinidad and Tobago, Anguilla, the US Virgin Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Panama are among some of the other jurisdictions on this list.

The EU’s list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes was established in December 2017 as part of the EU’s external strategy on taxation, hoping to promote tax good governance worldwide.

Jurisdictions are assessed based on a set of criteria laid down by the EU Council, covering tax transparency, fair taxation and implementation of international standards designed to prevent tax base erosion and profit shifting.

The list is updated twice a year with the next revision of the list scheduled for October 2024.

Attempts to reach administration officials at press time were unsuccessful.