OECD upgrades tax transparency rating for Seychelles

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has recently released a report noting improved adherence with international standards from Seychelles in regards to sharing information with other tax authorities.

The OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes included the new overall rating of "Largely Compliant" in a report that looked at the jurisdiction alongside Cyprus and Luxembourg. The three had previously been rated non-compliant and were praised for making positive changes to their legal frameworks or practices.

Earlier report

An earlier report had found Seychelles lacking effective enforcement provisions and supervision when it came to up-to-date ownership information regarding international business companies (IBCs).

It also highlighted a lack of supervision and effective sanctions for entities that did not keep accounting data.

Improvements

The OECD has now reported that since the review, Seychelles has improved across a wide range of activities.

These include putting strengthened sanctions for non-compliance in place and introducing a requirement for IBCs to provide declaration of compliance with its ownership and accounting obligation. Any breach of this condition can lead to sanctions.

An obligation on corporate service providers (CSPs) to monitor compliance of their clients with record keeping requirements has also been introduced, and monitoring of the situation is providing results to the FSA.

Seychelles has also recently signed up to the Multilateral Convention on mutual administrative assistance, which subsequently came into force at the start of October.