TT not on golden passport list

THIS country is not included on a list of 21 countries published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in relation to “golden passport schemes.”

A golden passport scheme is defined as a permanent residency visa issued to individuals who invest, often through the purchase of property, a certain sum of money in the issuing country.

Checks on the OECD website showed that Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and the Turks and Caicos Islands are on the list.

Malta, Monaco and Cyprus are also on this list. The OECD said while residence and citizenship by investment schemes allow individuals to obtain citizenship or residence rights through local investments or against a flat fee for perfectly legitimate reasons, they can also be potentially misused to hide assets offshore.

Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Lucia were flagged by the OECD because of their citizenship-by-investment programmes. The OECD was also concerned about Antigua and Barbuda’s permanent residence certificate and St Kitts and Nevis’s residence by investment.

The Bahamas was named for its economic permanent residency; Barbados for special entry and residence permit; Montserrat for its economic residency programme; and the Turks and Caicos Islands for its permanent residence certificate.

The OECD said it characterized the named countries’ schemes as potentially high-risk, as they give access to a low personal tax rate on income from foreign financial assets and do not require an individual to spend a significant amount of time in the jurisdiction that offers the scheme.

The OECD will work with common reporting standard-committed jurisdictions, as well as financial institutions, to ensure that the guidance and other OECD measures remain effective in ensuring that foreign income is reported to the actual jurisdiction of residence.