Yesterday we told you that Belize was blacklisted by the European Union after it issued an updated list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.
However, the government fired back saying that it reject what it calls a false designation. And today, Minister Usher explained that GOB will be requesting a review at the earliest possible opportunity.
Henry Charles Usher. Area Rep., Fort George
"I think it is what that really indicates is a situation where you have these first world countries continuing to change the goalposts, continuing to move the goalposts for jurisdictions like Belize, jurisdictions in the Caribbean when it comes to these issues."
"This government has passed a huge amount of legislation dealing with transparency in taxes but for whatever reason the EU decided to go back to a date when those legislations had not been passed."
"They did not give Belize an opportunity to update them on what legislation has been passed and you all know you've covered it in the House since April there has been a number of legislation, a package of legislation dealing with tax issues, dealing with all the different institutions that deal with taxes as well."
"But instead of looking at what has been done they decided to go back to an arbitrary date before the legislations were passed and to use that as their baseline. What Belize will do of course is to apply for a review but it can't be done until April of 2024 but we do believe that in April 2024 when that application for review is made that Belize will then be removed from this list."
