BRUSSELS - Curaçao appears to have narrowly escaped placement on the black list of tax havens published by the European Union on 12 March.

The so-called EU Code of Conduct Group intended to do so, as can be seen from the letter that President Fabrizia Lapecorella wrote to Finance Minister Kenneth Gijsbertha on 1 February.

It states in so many words that the tax system of Curaçao is classified as "harmful" because three parts of it promote "harmful tax competition" compared to other countries that do adhere to international standards.

ALWAYS WARNED

Two years ago, at the end of December 2017, Curaçao already received that stamp. The government then made a commitment to adjust the tax regime to the criteria applied by the EU: tax transparency, (no) harmful tax competition and participation in the minimum standard of the OECD.

During a new review at the end of last year, the Code of Conduct Group found that Curaçao has indeed replaced the legislation on the criticized points, but in some cases by new rules that, according to EU standards, cannot be accepted.

HIGH POLITICAL LEVEL

From the letter from Lapecorella it can be concluded that Curaçao has promised "at a high political level" to change the controversial components before the end of this year or to completely abolish them. That commitment was sufficient for the EU not to place Curaçao on the black list for the time being.

The chairman of the Code of Conduct Group makes it clear at the end of the letter that there is a limit to the leniency: a new assessment will take place at the beginning of 2020. If the adjustments at that time have not been made in accordance with the guidelines, Curaçao will still be added to the list of tax havens.

Aruba is on the black list, Sint Maarten has not (yet) been assessed.