Members of Parliament shared their concerns about St. Maarten adopting legislation related to the Common Reporting Standard with Radhanath Housden, Head of the Automatic Exchange of Information Unit at the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information, in a Central Committee meeting on Tuesday.
St. Maarten has committed to adopting the information standard for the automatic exchange of information regarding bank accounts on a global level, between tax authorities, which the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development developed in 2014. The purpose is to combat tax evasion. The country is yet to comply with the standards by implementing domestic laws. The international framework is already in place. Parliament is due to handle the related laws on Friday. Several MPs argued that these standards are just more regulations imposed on the country and could possibility scare foreign investors away. Housden was invited by Parliament for the discussion. He was accompanied by civil servants of the Ministry of Finance.
