Barbados should not be penalised for its preference for signing Double Taxation Agreements (DTAs) over Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs), says the Barbados International Business Association (BIBA).
Reacting to the recent release of the Phase II report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Global Forum Peer Review, BIBA president Connie Smith described it as “unreasonable” that Barbados had been found “non-compliant” regarding its ability to exchange information with relevant partners, largely because it had only responded favourably to the requests by two out of five OECD members to negotiate TIEAs, while continuing to express a preference for negotiating DTAs.
“The ability to exchange tax information is enshrined in the provisions of a DTA, so the idea that it would somehow be better for Barbados to negotiate TIEAs, which do not create business of substance or provide economic benefit to Barbados in the same way that DTAs can, would frankly be cutting off our nose to spite our face,” said Smith.
She added: “Barbados’ long-term strategy has been to pursue the negotiation of DTAs that provide significant opportunities for Barbados. To casually depart from this strategy at the initial request to simply exchange tax information would significantly dilute the main differentiator for Barbados amongst international business centres.” (GE/PR)
