Barbados Not Listed as a Tax Haven by Belgium

Barbados is not included in list of jurisdictions labelled as tax havens by Belgium.

On May 12, Belgium published its May 6 Royal Decree listing the jurisdictions recognized as tax havens in conjunction with the new reporting requirement that entered into force on January 1.

The May 6 Royal Decree lists the tax havens as:
• Abu Dhabi (a U.A.E. city);
• Ajman (a U.A.E. emirate);
• Andorra;
• Anguilla;
• the Bahamas;
• Bahrain;
• Bermuda;
• the British Virgin Islands;
• the Cayman Islands;
• Dubai (a U.A.E. emirate);
• Micronesia;
• Fujairah (a U.A.E. emirate);
• Guernsey;
• Isle of Man;
• Jersey;
• Jethou (a Channel Island);
• Maldives;
• Moldova;
• Monaco;
• Montenegro;
• Nauru;
• Palau;
• Ras al Khaimah (a U.A.E. emirate);
• St. Bartholomew Island (Guadeloupe);
• Sharjah (a U.A.E. emirate);
• Sark;
• the Turks and Caicos Islands;
• Umm al Qaiwain (a U.A.E. emirate);
• Vanuatu; and
• Wallis and Futuna (a South Pacific French overseas collectivity).

Effective January 1, 2010, companies subject to Belgian corporate income tax or Belgian non-resident corporate income tax who make direct or indirect payments to recipients established in tax havens are obliged to declare these payments if they exceed EUR 100,000 during the tax year.

Payments that are not reported are disallowed, and payments that are reported are only allowed as expenses if the taxpayer can justify that the payment was made in the context of an "actual and genuine transaction" with "persons other than artificial tax avoidance schemes."
 
Belgium has defined a tax haven as: (i) a jurisdiction regarded by the OECD as not being cooperative concerning transparency and international exchange of information, or (ii) a jurisdiction where the nominal corporate tax rate is less than 10%.

The OECD in its initial report published in April 2009, and its most recent October 2009, "Progress Report on the Jurisdictions Surveyed by the OECD Global Forum in Implementing the Internationally Agreed Tax Standard," recognized Barbados as the only independent,  Caribbean nation which has substantially implemented the internationally agreed tax standard.  The nominal corporate tax rate in Barbados is 25%.