The Seychelles finance ministry is discussing collaboration and partnership on issues of tax transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes with its counterparts from Spain, Portugal and France.

According to a communique from the Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade, the discussions took place from May 13 to 17 led by Patrick Payet, the secretary of state for Finance, National Planning, and Trade. Payet also chairs the National Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Committee.

With the support of the Seychelles Embassy in France, meetings were held in Madrid with the Spanish secretary of state for Finance, Jesús Gascón Catalán, in Lisbon with the Portuguese secretary of state for Fiscal Affairs, Claudia Reis Duarte, and in Paris with Jérôme Fournel, director of the Cabinet of the French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. 

"Discussions focused on the legislative reforms undertaken since the year 2020. The Seychelles' delegation highlighted that the Beneficial Ownership legislation that was enacted in 2020 has ensured that the definition of beneficial owners satisfies the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and OECD requirement," said the communique.

The Seychelles delegation with the Spanish Secretary of State for Finance, Jesús Gascón Catalán. (Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade) Photo License: CC-BY

It added that "the legislation includes provisions for the establishment of an up-to-date register of beneficial owners, as well as a secured and centralised Seychelles Beneficial Ownership database maintained by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)."   

The parties also discussed the legislative reforms undertaken during the year 2022 in which all entities are now required to keep accounting information in Seychelles together with the supporting transaction documentation. These requirements are also applied to entities that are struck off and dissolved. All such data needs to be kept up to date and must be kept for at least seven years.

"Seychelles will continue to progress towards meeting the standards on the exchange of information on request (EOIR) and I am confident that the forthcoming supplementary review in 2025 will demonstrate the jurisdiction's largely compliant status with international standards on tax transparency," said Payet.

All parties have acknowledged Seychelles' efforts in actively engaging in reforms to ensure that it meets international standards. They have all committed to continuing the collaboration and partnerships with Seychelles to ensure that it meets the standards of EOIR and becomes an effective partner in the exchange of information for tax purposes. 

On February 19, Seychelles was removed from Annex I of the European Union (EU) list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, known as the EU blacklist, and added to Annex II of the list, known as the EU greylist. This decision followed the approval by the Peer Review Group (PRG) of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes for Seychelles to qualify for a supplementary review in 2025 on the implementation of the standard of transparency and EOIR, including an on-site visit by the assessment team.

Seychelles intends to continue similar engagement with other key countries to further the jurisdictions' commitment to promoting tax transparency and effective exchange of information.