Negotiations on tax treaties

July 29, 2009 8:05 AM

The Antillean Government has been busy with the preparations for the scheduled signing of nine tax treaties coming August and September. Preparations are already in progress to start the negotiations between October and December for at least ten additional treaties with countries such as Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Germany, France, Grenada, Italy, Mexico, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and Trinidad & Tobago.

In connection with this, State Secretary Alex Rosaria (Finances, PNP) therefore expects that the Task Force Tax Treaties, which is responsible for the negotiations, will be divided into two in order to attend to more negotiations simultaneously. According to Rosaria, these efforts prove that the Antilles are determined to (continue to) comply with the high international standards with regard to transparency and integrity of financial provision of services.
The State Secretary is especially pleased that the fiscal bonds with the various Caribbean islands will be tightened: he has always given a higher priority to a closer (commercial) cooperation with the region.

In addition to Europe and the Caribbean region, there is still a lot of work to be done according to the State Secretary. The signing of an information-exchange treaty with Mexico and at a later stage negotiations on a treaty regarding prevention of double-taxation, are still on the shelf.
Nevertheless, that is still insufficient according to Rosaria : “We have indicated that we want to become the bridge to and from Latin America, but the fact is that this promise has not been met entirely. Therefore, during the coming months we shall become more focused on the South-American market in particular, which is bursting with economical potential. In this framework, preparations will be made to visit Argentine, Brazil, Chili, and Colombia,” the State Secretary concludes.

(Source: National Newspaper Amigoe)

July 28, 2009