Netherlands Antilles protests inclusion on 'tax haven' list

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao: “Righting a grave injustice” and “removal of the Netherlands Antilles from tax haven lists”.

These unequivocal statements are made in a document that was sent by the State Secretary of Finance of the Netherlands Antilles, Alex Rosaria, to the Tax Directorate of the European Commission (EC) and is a follow-up to a meeting between Rosaria and representatives of the EC earlier this year.

According to Rosaria, the Netherlands Antilles is committed to providing a leading edge financial service industry with high-end supervision in line with international standards to protect the consumer. “We are an active and a complying member of various international organizations such as the OECD, the Egmont Group, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF)”.

The Netherlands Antilles is recognized by the OECD as a co-operative jurisdiction; in April 2008 the Egmont Group gave the Netherlands Antilles its seal of approval and the IMF in its most recent Article IV Consultations concluded that “The financial sector of the Netherlands Antilles is broadly healthy”.

As Rosaria explained: “Any reference to us being a tax haven” is totally misguided, contradictory and unjust. If we were a tax haven Spain would not have concluded a Tax Information Exchange Treaty with us in June 2008”.

What really puzzles Rosaria is the reaction from the Tax Directorate so far. “The EC claims it cannot intervene on our behalf to correct the above mentioned unjust inclusion on black lists of some EU members because EU Members are autonomous in their tax matters. This statement seems very curious especially when we note that in the case of imposing actions to promote what the EU calls good tax governance the EC does have the authority to act on behalf of the EU Members”.

Rosaria asks: “Why does the argument of autonomy of the individual EU Member not apply when the EU takes actions to promote good tax governance on the Netherlands Antilles? And why does it apply when the Netherlands Antilles request the EC, not for a favor mind you, but to simply correct an error that has been made by some EU members?"

Finally Rosaria said that he expects nothing less than the elimination of the Netherlands Antilles from those black lists. “The EC must understand that we demand a level playing field, that we can not be held to higher standards than is demanded of other OECD Member and especially that I must do everything in my power to guard our international financial services industry from further erosion. Black listing seriously undermines the competitiveness of the Netherlands Antilles’ financial services sector and consequently the well-being of ou people.”

Source: CaribbeannetNews