LEIDEN - Germaine Rekwest will support the Minister of Finance Javier Silvania with treaty policy for Curaçao. The appointment comes a week after Rekwest obtained her Ph.D. at Leiden University. The title of her Ph.D. research was ‘A tax treaty policy for Curaçao: a study into a set of instruments for developing a tax treaty policy for Curaçao’.
The appointment was announced in the travelogue of Silvania, who was present at the promotion. Rekwest is not the first tax specialist with a PhD from Curaçao descent. That honor goes to Edsel Rosenda, who graduated cum laude from the University of Groningen.
Ph.D. research
Her PhD research focused on the tax treaty policy of Curaçao from an international perspective. Her research was not aimed at making recommendations on the technical aspects of a tax treaty policy or a model treaty.
Rather, the aim of her research was to map out the conditions for building a network of tax treaties.
Germaine has investigated the obstacles for Curaçao when it comes to concluding and ratifying tax treaties on the basis of literature research and qualitative and quantitative research.
On the other hand, she has researched which considerations are relevant for Curaçao when it comes to building a tax treaty network.
The outcome of her research is an evaluation framework that can serve as a guideline for Curaçao when designing a tax treaty policy or adjusting a possibly existing (but unpublished) tax treaty policy.
Previously, Rekwest was an assistant professor of tax law at the University of Curaçao, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Tilburg University. She also taught tax law at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. She was also a board member of the Ocan Foundation.