The Bahamas Financial Services Board announced that the government has signed a multilateral convention for assistance on tax matters.

In a statement , the Board said arriving at this point has required much collaboration between the government and industry stakeholders and this multilateral approach is consistent with that taken by over 108 countries in the OECD’’s global forum, which addresses the risks to tax compliance posed by non-cooperative jurisdictions.

The legislative framework for implementation of the common reporting standard was initially put in place by the Bahamas in 2016 to facilitate the automatic exchange of information, with most recent amendments being made this month to reflect the change from a bilateral to multilateral approach.

Last week,  Attorney general Carl Bethel said that the Government was “looking very carefully” at whether compliance with European (EU) demands will require this nation to eliminate the exchange control ‘ring fencing’ between the economy’s domestic and ‘offshore’ sectors.

He explained that countries had to eradicate “preferential tax regimes”, such as the Bahamas’ exchange control exemptions for companies deemed non-resident, if they were to satisfy the 28-member EU’s that they were a ‘cooperative jurisdiction’.