Belize Rejects Being Placed on EU Blacklist

On Tuesday, the European Union issued an updated list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes and Belize was placed on that list.  The reason behind the decision was because the country was assigned a partially compliant rating for international standard on exchange of information on request. This was published by the Global Forum on Tax Transparency and Exchange of Information on July nineteenth 2023. The Government of Belize rejects as false the designation of Belize by the EU, saying it is unjust and procedurally unfair and can “lead to erroneous conclusions being drawn about Belize’s commitment to work with its global partners in establishing a modern and fair international tax framework.” Today, Minister of Constitutional Reform Henry Charles Usher says that the designation did not take into consideration the legislations that have been passed to address these issues and Belize will apply for a review of the decision.   

Henry Charles Usher

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Constitutional Reform

“That really indicates a situation where you have these first world countries continuing to change the goal post, continuing to move the goal post for jurisdictions like Belize, jurisdictions in the Caribbean when it comes to these issues. We have, 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. 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 is apply for a review but it can’t be done until April of 2024. But we do believe that in April of 2024 when that application for review is made that Belize will then be removed from this list.”