The Barbados International Business Association (BIBA) has issued a broadside against officers in the Ministry of International Business, accusing them of “tardiness” that has resulted in embarrassment because the island is seen as not doing enough to improve tax information sharing.
Furthermore, the association has warned that the country’s reputation as a clean offshore jurisdiction was now in jeopardy.
BIBA?president Connie Smith made the comments as she responded to international reports that the Peer Review assessors of Barbados had put the country among a group of nations that was still deemed lax.
“We still think it more than passing strange that Barbados, a treaty-based jurisdiction that has a tax regime, collects tax information and has routinely exchanged tax information with its treaty network members for many years, is being challenged on every front by the Peer Review Group assessors.
“This, while zero-tax regimes who have no treaties and no mechanisms in place to exchange tax information – or any history of exchanging tax information – breeze through to Phase 2 assessment.
“This latest report is not about Barbados’ failure to cooperate with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Cabinet has committed to follow through with resolving the issues raised by the assessors,” she said.
According to Smith, “What this is about is the lack of urgency and gravity shown by the ministry tasked with the job of responding, and this current report manifests the reputational damage that bureaucracy can inflict on the country.”
She said the ongoing situation did not only represent an economic cost to the country, but could damage the “quality of our international reputation” when “our civil service does not do its job in a timely manner”.
Noting that the country did not deserve this, the BIBA?president said: “In the private sector, heads would roll for something of this magnitude but in the public sector, where there appears to be no accountability, this too shall pass. We can only hope that those involved now understand the problems their inertia has caused for Barbados.”
Smith said Barbados was to provide responses to queries by the assessors and to have certain protocols, treaties and tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) approved by Cabinet and ready for signature within a certain timeframe but failed to do so.
“It is also my understanding that this is the second time this year that we have failed to meet a deadline in this regard. However, I believe arrangements have been made to sign the relevant treaties [among other things] next week; and we have been given a further extension to respond in detail to the legal queries raised by the assessors surrounding the effectiveness of our legislation and tax regulations to meet the OECD requirements,” she revealed.
Making the adjustments to meet those requirements was not the issue, she said.
“It’s a matter of doing so within the timelines set. Our nation’s reputation is in the hands of the very same civil servants in the Ministry of International Business whose tardiness got us into this problem.” (GE)
