PRESS STATEMENT
On the list released by the European Union on non - cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes
Calle Schlettwein, MP, Minister of Finance, 06 December 2017
Distinguished members of the Media,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Yesterday the European Union released a list of non - cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, which includes Namibia. The Namibian Government emphatically rejects this assessment and would point out the following attributes of what we consider to be an equitable and transparent tax regime:
Recently officials from Inland Revenue Department met with officials from the EU Embassy to Namibia to discuss this matter and to seek clarification on criteria. Since not all explanations could be provided to all our questions, it was agreed that further engagement with local EU staff and or EU tax experts from abroad is needed. After further engagement with the local EU staff, we were advised of the deadline to inform EU of our commitment to implementing proposed actions or how we react to them. Due to miss-communication we missed that deadline, but that does not make Namibia a non-compliant country or tax-haven. We are therefore perplexed to learn that, the EU has revealed names of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes including on the 5th December 2017 which include Namibia. click here to continue reading....