Premier and minister of finance, Dr Orlando Smith
By Bria Smith
ROAD TOWN, BVI — Premier and minister of finance, Dr Orlando Smith, has announced that the British Virgin Islands has passed important legislation that addresses the European Union’s (EU) concerns over “economic substance” and which came into force on January 1, 2019.
The Economic Substance (Companies and Limited Partnerships) Act, 2018, concluded its passage through the House of Assembly on December 19. This was ahead of the December 31 deadline set by the EU for the BVI and other financial centres.
The EU is compiling a list of non-cooperative jurisdictions on the basis of certain criteria it has set covering tax transparency, fair taxation and compliance with the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) requirements. As part of this process the EU screened 92 countries in 2017, including large nations such as the US and China.
