February 23, 2021
The European Union on Monday took Barbados off its blacklist of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, triggering celebrations in Bridgetown’s international business community.
But in a twist of fate that continues to engulf the Caribbean in a saga of charge and counter-charge over compliance, Dominica has been blacklisted just as Barbados has been removed from the list, according to the Council of the EU in a press statement.
Barbados was added to the list in October 2020 after it received a ‘partially compliant’ rating from the Global Forum. It has now been granted a supplementary review by the Global Forum and has therefore been moved to a state-of-play document (Annex II of the Council conclusions) pending the outcome of this review.
Insurance domicile ‘grows amid pandemic’
Article by February 16, 2021
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic crippled economies and industries around the world in 2020, the insurance industry in Barbados grew, dominated by international firms, business experts revealed Monday.
The disclosure was made at the launch of the Barbados International Business Association’s inaugural Barbados Risk and Insurance Management (BRIM) virtual conference.
Last year they were 60 new entrants into the insurance industry in Barbados, said BIBA president Derrick Cummins, as he pointed out that Barbados continued to be one of the top markets for the world’s insurance business.
Cummins said: “Barbados continues to distinguish itself among the top 10 domiciles for captive insurance business globally and while we regret not being able to showcase in person all that Barbados has to offer to an international audience following on the heels of the highly successful virtual Global Bu
February 4, 2021
A hybrid national identification card to be introduced in Barbados in a matter of weeks will have a mobile application version, and there is the possibility of citizens being able to use it for travel, officials said Wednesday.
The officials discussed the benefits of the Barbados national digital ID, which is to be rolled out by the end of March, at an online forum hosted by the Barbados International Business Association (BIBA), in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), under the theme
e-Readiness: Digital ID.
Antonio Lythcott, Project Manager in the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology acknowledged that the current two-week lockdown affected the planned introduction of the digital ID. But he gave an assurance that an aggressive education campaign would be introduced in the coming days.
Barbados to ‘get break’ from tax blacklist
Article by December 10, 2020
Barbados has scored an apparent breakthrough in its fight to get the European Commission to remove the island from its blacklist of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, according to Minister of International Business Ronald Toppin.
He told
Starcom Network radio on Wednesday that Barbados’ application to the Paris-based club of rich countries, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), for a “supplementary review” of the measure has been approved.
He explained: “This means and was stated by them in writing to us, that once the OECD agrees to grant us that supplementary review, then we are removed from their blacklist, this is, the blacklist of the European Union and placed on the grey list pending the outcome of that Supplementary Review.