NEWS CENTRE

Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon is expected to lead a high-powered delegation to the Second CARICOM-Mexico Summit at the Hilton Barbados on May 21. The one-day summit, which will also bring together regional heads from the 15 CARICOM nations, will be preceded by a Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs on Sunday May 20.

Barbados remains an attractive international business jurisdiction for Canadian companies despite the number of tax information-exchange agreements Canada has signed with zero-tax countries.

Barbados can now exchange international business information with the UK following the signing of the Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to taxes on income and on capital by Minister of International Business and International Transport, George Hutson.

Jamaica’s plans for an offshore financial centre appear to have been sidelined in this year’s budget, but Government officials say the zero dollars allocated to the project was an ‘administrative oversight’.

Since the beginning of this month, and until the end of December, few foreign nationals are going to be given the opportunity to enter Anguilla for a wide range of jobs.

A sobering report has revealed low levels of professional confidence in The Bahamas, a stark contrast to the worldwide view. The Global Economic Conditions Survey, conducted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Institute of Management Accountants, involving thousands of accountants from around the world, noted that business confidence in The Bahamas is the lowest in the Caribbean.

Policies are needed that re-invest aviation tax receipts back into the industry and to ensure that aviation is treated as an economic catalyst not a ‘cash cow’, says the International Air Transport Association.

Pointing to the European Union’s (EU) decision to include aviation in its emissions trading scheme (ETS), IATA Director General and CEO Tony Tyler told the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Air Transport Symposium in Montreal that a globally-coordinated approach is needed to manage the aviation industry’s contribution to man-made CO2 emissions rather than a regional approach which “distorts markets

Rich Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship rose sevenfold since UBS AG (UBSN) whistle-blower Bradley Birkenfeld triggered a crackdown on tax evasion four years ago.

About 1,780 expatriates gave up their nationality at U.S. embassies last year, up from 235 in 2008, according to Andy Sundberg, secretary of Geneva’s Overseas American Academy, citing figures from the government’s Federal Register. The embassy in Bern, the Swiss capital, redeployed staff to clear a backlog as Americans queued to relinquish their passports.

The U.S., the only nation in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that taxes citizens wherever they reside, is searching for tax cheats in offshore centers, including Switzerland, as the government tries to curb the budget deficit.

Ireland and the United States are in talks to establish a common approach to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), drawing on domestic and international tax legislation and treaties.

According to the Irish Funds Industry Association (IFIA), representatives from the Irish Revenue are in contact with the US Treasury, with discussions ongoing.

FATCA, enacted in March 2010, is intended to ensure that the US tax authorities obtain information on financial accounts, above certain limits, held by US taxpayers at foreign financial institutions (FFIs). Failure by an FFI to disclose information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would result in a requirement to withhold 30% tax on US-source income. It is thought that Ireland wants any agreed approach to FATCA to be based on domestic tax reporting legislation and an automatic exchange of information under existing bilateral tax treaties.