Basseterre, St. Kitts, September 4, 2019 (SKNIS): The way forward for the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis is steeped in international relations and becoming even more interconnected with the global community. As part of the compliance with international legislation, the Federation is aligning its laws with theirs.
The Company Amendment Bill, 2019, was passed on September 03 in the National Assembly. According to the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris, the reason for this is to “abolish harmful features within their tax regimes that have the potential to unfairly impact the tax base of other jurisdictions.”
“The Bill is intended to attend to two matters: firstly, to ensure that St. Kitts and Nevis addresses the recommendations that were made by the Global Forum with respect to tax transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes and, secondly to address the requirement that safeguards are put in place in relation to certain aspects of the exempt companies’ regime,” said Prime Minister Harris.
He went on to say that the final amendment would require the revised Section 224 of the Companies Act to be further amended to prevent current exempt companies from acquiring new assets or engage in new activity that is inconsistent with the objectives for which the exempt company was incorporated and to further prohibit exempt companies from acquiring intellectual property assets of related parties.
Prime Minister Harris stated that it is important to re-emphasize the point that we are a responsible and respected partner in the global financial system. He ended by saying that in order for the Federation to maintain this good standing, the Government has to review the existing legislation to ensure that the laws comply with the international standards as they evolve.
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