Tax Policy and Administration officials in CARICOM Member States jointly tackle challenges at Jamaica Meeting

CARICOM Secretariat’s Evelyn Wayne on Monday addressed the Opening of a two-day  CARICOM-OECS Base Erosion Profit (BEP) Shifting Workshop  in Jamaica.

The Workshop is providing CARICOM Member States with the opportunity to discuss the impact and progress of the BEPS Project in the Region and to share experiences that demonstrate good practices related to BEPS priorities and their implementation.

It is focussing on the BEPS Minimum Standards addressing preferential regimes and double taxation agreements as priorities for CARICOM Member States. Facilitators, including OECS experts, will share international experiences regarding the implementation of BEPS minimum standards. Tax policy Advisors and Administration officials from CARICOM Member States will exchange views on the policy reforms and decisions that may be required to align the Region’s tax regimes with the standards and requirements regarding international taxation matters. In the end, participants are expected to identify an indicative BEPS implementation agenda to be pursued by CARICOM Member States.

Here are  extracts from Ms Wayne’s presentation:

I believe that CARICOM States have been quite interested in the roll out of the BEPS project because of the issues we have confronted as individual States in dealing with large multinational corporations as well as a Community as we work together to administer the intra-CARICOM Double Taxation Agreement.  That agreement is intended to promote trade and investment within CARICOM but instead, appears to have been used as an instrument in corporate tax planning schemes. We hope, through the application of some of the BEPS measures and the previously made decision to amend the CARICOM agreement to explicitly incorporate tax transparency provisions, to address those loopholes that several countries have identified overtime.

Within the last nine months or so, the BEPS project has taken on enhanced relevance to CARICOM States as a result of the European Union’s tax good governance initiative which has resulted in several CARICOM States being blacklisted as non-cooperative tax jurisdictions and having to make high level commitments to undertake tax reforms by December 2018.  CARICOM States have expressed their concerns about the approach utilized by the European Union in blacklisting sovereign States as well as the extremely short implementation timeframe that has been thrust upon us.  However, CARICOM States also recognize the necessity of keeping their tax systems under review to ensure that their taxation strategies are consistent with mutually agreed international best practices while at the same time delivering the tax revenues required to drive growth and development in our Community.  This Workshop therefore became a priority as BEPS participation is one of the criteria used by the EU to evaluate third States.

So, in having to accelerate our participation in the BEPS inclusive framework, this workshop presents an opportunity for tax policy and administration officials in CARICOM States to inform themselves about the BEPS project and to obtain a solid understanding of the elements which would be priorities for us.   We have represented in the room today – 10 CARICOM Member States and the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre which has been working with Member States to modernize their tax systems.  I therefore hope that before we adjourn tomorrow we have the makings of a CARICOM BEPS technical agenda that we can collaborate on advancing in the near future.  This expectation is based on the commitment of CARICOM States, as expressed in the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that they will coordinate and harmonize their tax structures in the interest of the shared goal of regional economic prosperity.