Government
Industry perspective on TCI BLACKLISTING
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, March 31, 2023 – ‘Basically, an administration issue’ is what landed TCI on the EUs Blacklist, a local corporate service provider in the TCI industry for over 10 years tells us as she explains the situation from their point of view, the people whose clients stand to lose hundreds of thousands.
“We really put the pedal to the metal, but it wasn’t enough,” she explained. The provider who elected to remain anonymous, told Magnetic Media that the TCI had not completed to the EUs Satisfaction, the number of filings to satisfy the economic substance filing requirement based on the number of companies actually filed with the TCI companies registry.
The list is not completely accurate, she explains, which is a part of the problem; one that the FSC is trying to fix. The Government has also been slow with implementing their own necessary portals.
“The exchange of information office with Henry Saunders as its director was supposed to be up and running with
This forced companies to submit their filings by email or even hardcopy. This in and of itself was reasonable, but not fast or thorough enough for the EU.
“As far as an industry we were filling, we were doing it, but the EU wants to have it on a particular format which is what this online system was supposed to provide but that system was not available in good time.”
Aside from the Government’s system not being up in time, it crashed from overuse when it was ready. The Government missed the time frame they had committed to, to correct the issue but the issue is dwarfed by the reaction.
Only one tax deficiency was attached to the Turks and Caicos in the EU document. It said the TCI “Does not ensure the effective monitoring of company obligations regarding substance requirements in the jurisdiction.” The same was said for The Bahamas and yet both are listed as non-cooperative jurisdictions along with the Russian Federation and other counties.
Her explanation confirms what E Jay Saunders, Deputy Premier and Finance Minister explained as a frustrating overreaction on the part of the European Union.
“We felt it was an unfair thing to do for them to Blacklist us considering they know the challenges,” she said. “As an industry we were really putting in to make sure these filings were done, and people were compliant and some of these are very detailed. We really tried.”
As for how it might affect the TCI she said,
“There are some savvy investors that know how these things go and they’re not phased but there are some who see this as a big red flag and may not move forward with investments.”
That red flag will be gone soon according to Saunders, who has committed to getting the country in right standing along with top financial consultant company Kroll, by next year.