Netherlands Antilles and UAE to start tax treaty negotiations

Netherlands Antilles and UAE to start tax treaty negotiations

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WILLEMSTAD, Curacao: The negotiating teams of the Netherlands Antilles and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will kick off the negotiation of a double taxation treaty during the second week of May. The negotiating teams have agreed to meet each other half way and will hold their talks in The Hague.

Netherlands Antilles State
Secretary of Finance,
Alex Rosaria

“A double taxation treaty (DTA) between two countries allows taxpayers of those countries not to pay taxes to both countries for the same business transaction. Even though the UEA imposes no taxes on profit or income, a DTA will open up the important UEA’s financial market to our financial services sector and vice versa,” said Alex Rosaria, State Secretary of Finance of the Netherlands Antilles.

United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven emirates including Abu Dhabi and Dubai. UAE plays a pivotal role in the hub of the dynamic trading environment of the Arabian Gulf and offers a lot of exciting new opportunities for the Netherlands Antilles.

Recently, the Government commissioned a study regarding the possibilities of Islamic Financing System. This study will come up with recommendations as to the desirability to adapt the tax system of the Netherlands Antilles in order to be better able to do business with countries that abide by the set of rules and laws known as the Shariah.

The Netherlands Antilles has DTA’s with Aruba, the Netherlands and Norway. A DTA with Venezuela is awaiting a date to be signed. Additionally, the Netherlands Antilles has Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA’S) with the USA, Australia and New Zeeland.

Negotiations with Surname started last March and firm commitments exist to negotiate DTA’s in 2008 with Mexico, Colombia and Spain. Additionally the Netherlands Antilles plans to this year sign TIEA’S with Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Greenland and the Faroer Islands

These agreements underscore the fact that the Netherlands Antilles is a first class jurisdiction. State Secretary Rosaria considers it therefore totally inaccurate and unfortunate that some countries consider the Netherlands Antilles a “tax haven”.