The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas has been praised by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) for the “highly efficient manner” in which it deals with tax information requests, processing 85 per cent within six months of receipt.

The OECD, long viewed as the Bahamas’ nemesis when it comes to tax and financial services matters, was largely forced to change its tune in its second phase Peer Review of this nation, given the general praise this nation received from states requesting tax information on their citizens.

Revealing just how far the Bahamas has come in implementing, and complying with, existing international tax information exchange standards, the OECD report said this nation received 48 requests in the three-year period between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2012.

Noting that this number “doubled each year” for the three years reviewed by the OECD team, the report found that if the time taken by requesting states to respond to the Bahamas’ demands for clarifications was excluded, 85 per cent of tax information requests were dealt with within six months.

“The Bahamas was in a position to provide a final response within 90 days in 12 cases (25 per cent of the total received requests), with another 24 cases (50 per cent of the total received requests) processed within 180 days,” the OECD report said.

The requests came from eight different jurisdictions, it added, with cases or 10 per cent dealt with by the Bahamas within one year.

The OECD report said only two tax information requests, still ongoing, were taking longer than one year.

And it further revealed: “If the time taken by the requesting jurisdiction is excluded, the Bahamas was in a position to provide a final response to the exchange of information partner within 90 days in 37 cases (77 per cent of the total received requests), with another four cases (8 per cent of the total received requests) processed within 180 days.

“Despite clarifications being sought in almost 30 per cent of cases, 85 per cent of the requests were fully responded to within 180 days (including the time taken by the requesting jurisdiction to revert back to the Bahamas, demonstrating that generally the processing of requests occurs in an efficient manner and there is strong adherence to timelines.”

And, effectively placing a further ‘feather in the Bahamas cap’, the OECD report added: “Feedback from peers also indicated that generally the Bahamas responded to exchange of information requests in an efficient manner and provided regular status updates where required.”

The Bahamas also maintained regular phone and e-mail contact with requesting states throughout the process, the report found, and had signed 17 ‘competent authority’ agreements with nations who it has existing Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) with.

Suggesting that this “close co-operation” had earned the Bahamas high marks with some OECD states and TIEA partners, the OECD report said: “A few peers complimented the highly efficient manner in which exchange of information requests were dealt with by the competent authority of the Bahamas.”

The OECD report broke down the 48 information requests into 27 seeking ownership and identity information; 15 wanting accounting information; and 32 asking for banking information.

“Of the 27 ownership requests, 24 related to company ownership information, and three related to trust ownership information,” the report said.

“The Bahamas was able to provide ownership information in 26 of these cases, with the one outstanding case still ongoing.”

The OECD report also revealed that the Bahamas is looking at a more than-50 per cent expansion of its existing TIEA network, which would take the number of treaties signed with other states from the existing 29 to 44 - a 15-strong increase.

“The Bahamas has recently initialled four further TIEAs,” the report revealed. “Two of these have been approved for signature, and the Bahamas is awaiting confirmation from its partners on their readiness to move forward with signing the other two agreements. TIEA negotiations with 11 other jurisdictions are in various stages of completion.”