Barbados joins tax haven effort ahead of deadline

Barbados will not appear on a forthcoming OECD list of unco-operative tax havens, after discussions with the OECD showed that Barbados has transparent tax and regulatory systems. Recent legislative changes also enhanced the transparency of its tax and regulatory rules, the OECD and Barbados said in

a joint statement. Barbados, which already has long-standing information exchange arrangements with other countries, said it was willing to enter into tax information exchange arrangements with those OECD members not covered by existing arrangements. The announcement brings to 11 the number of countries that have agreed to co-operate in making their tax regimes more transparent, from an original Est of 35 unco-operative regimes that were published by the OECD in 2000 (see also "Combating harmful tax practices" on page 28 in Spotlight on Taxation). The OECD is pursuing co-operative dialogue with other non-OECD economies identified as tax havens. It believes that all jurisdictions are well-placed to make a decision to commit to improving the transparency of their tax and regulatory systems and to establish effective exchange of information by a deadline of 28 February Gabriel Makhlouf, chair of the OECD committee on fiscal affairs, said in a statement in late January.

Work with non-OECD economies in the coming months will focus on financial centres not identified as tax havens, Mr Makhlouf said. The OECD is also progressing in reviews of potentially harmful preferential tax regimes in its own countries and hopes to finalise them by June.