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A top official of the Seychelles Finance Ministry said that his government disagreed with the decision of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to maintain the island nation’s rating as “partially compliant,” and feared being placed back on the European Union blacklist
A top official of the Seychelles Finance Ministry said that his government disagreed with the decision of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to maintain the island nation’s rating as “partially compliant,” and feared being placed back on the European Union blacklist.
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The Global Forum of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is the leading international body working on the implementation of global transparency and exchange of information standards around the world. Significantly, in July, the 2023 Exchange of Information on Request Supplementary Peer Review Report for Seychelles was adopted.
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The Secretary of State in the finance ministry, Patrick Payet said that Seychelles has made considerable progress by putting in place necessary legislations as well as on the implementation of those standards. Yet, the Global Forum has maintained the rating for Seychelles as partially compliant. This decision, he said, was largely based on the demand for tax-related information on an agent previously registered in Seychelles. The agent left the jurisdiction of Seychelles in 2018 with all the records of companies that were registered in his name. SRC (the Seychelles Revenue Commission) could not submit any information to any demand regarding those companies.
The finance ministry official said that the same agent was the main concern for which Seychelles was downgraded from a largely compliant to partially compliant rating when the Global Forum made the evaluation in 2020.
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The European Union (EU) screens countries on several criteria. One of which is the report from the Global Forum, to establish if a jurisdiction is considered cooperative for tax purposes or not. In 2021. Seychelles was moved from Annex 1 – the blacklist – to Annex 2 – the watch list – on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. The official, expressing his concern said that there was the possibility that, in October, the EU might place Seychelles back into Annex 1, which can wreck Seychelles’ economy as international bankers would see Seychelles might be a risk when it comes to the exchange of tax-related information.
