Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, the Hon. Allen Chastanet, last week sought Parliament’s approval to amend Saint Lucia’s tax regime, during a sitting of the House of Assembly.

Not too long ago, Saint Lucia was labelled by the European Union (EU) as having harmful preferential tax regimes.

The EU indicated that it was interested in promoting good governance worldwide, and maximizing efforts at preventing tax fraud and evasion. The EU said Saint Lucia does not apply the base erosion and profit shifting minimum standard, and was to commit to addressing the issue by Dec. 31. In that vein, a team was put together to create what the Prime Minister indicated is a Territorial Tax Structure.

Also speaking on the issue of tax amendments, Minister for Commerce, Hon. Bradley Felix, addressed the Free Zone Amendment Bill. According to Hon. Felix the amendment was made relatively easily, due to Saint Lucia not having any banking or insurance activity ongoing in the Free Trade Zone. The amended sections included but were not limited to 10(a), 11 and 15(a).