The Ministry of Finance, Investment & Trade is pleased to announce that on February 20th, 2024, the European Council Code of Conduct Group (“EU COCG”) removed the Turks and Caicos Islands (“TCI”) from the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. This comes on the heels of the TCI in October 2022, being placed on its blacklist after noting several deficiencies in the enforcement of the TCI’s Economic Substance requirements and setting down “hard recommendations” to the jurisdiction to have these remedied.
Following this, the Turks & Caicos Islands Government and the Ministry of Finance made significant investments to remedy the recommendations made. Some of the actions undertaken by the Ministry of Finance included but was not limited to, the launching of the Economic Substance Portal, a comprehensive review of the legislation, training for industry stakeholders, production of comprehensive guidance notes, and an overall strengthening of the processes and procedures that were adopted by the Financial Transaction Information Exchange Unit (“FTIE”) who has been tasked with the administration of the Companies and Limited Partnerships (Economic Substance) Ordinance.
The Ministry of Finance remains committed to strengthening its relationship with stakeholders domestically and internationally, providing a reporting mechanism that allows for the safe exchange of information and most importantly continuous investment in staff through training and development in the area of global tax evasion and information exchange.
The jurisdiction accepts this removal as a step in the right direction. It remains the overall goal to continue to promote safe practices regarding fair and transparent taxation and to continue to improve our enforcement and compliance regime on Economic Substance.
According to Hon. E. Jay Saunders, Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance, “This is a significant achievement by the Ministry of Finance and the Financial Transactions Information Exchange Dept. teams, specifically PS Harvey-Basden, DPS Nasiya Misick-Dickenson, and Ms. Shatelia L. Hall Greene. This outcome shows that they are world class. I want to assure our partner, the EU COCG, that this outcome is not a final step, and that we will continue to work with them to identify and address issues and loopholes that could lead to the erosion of the tax base of other jurisdictions.”
The Ministry of Finance wishes to also take this opportunity to recognize the hard work of the Deputy Director, FTIE Mrs. Shatelia Hall- Greene and compliance officer Mr. Jordel Swan who worked assiduously on behalf of TCI in undertaking the necessary to have us removed from the blacklist. Their hard work and dedication to Country has not gone unrecognized.
