SKN Parliament passes Income Tax Bill amendments

St Kitts and Nevis: The Income Tax Bill (Amendments), 2021, which is a bill to amend the Income Tax Tax Act. 20.22, was adopted in the Parliament of St Kitts and Nevis on Thursday, March 25, 2021.

"What we are really trying to do is a relatively small amendment to the Income Tax Act, and it focuses on the concept of whether a business entity is resident or non-resident in our country," the Attorney General, Vincent Byron, who was also the mover of the bill, added that the amendment "kind of" complements the formation of companies.

Attorney General Byron said the business climate is thriving because of the law.

"We have an attractive jurisdiction that would be considered in the form of a company formation, especially in Nevis, where companies, entities, could be registered with the understanding that they would be tax-free elsewhere. And we did not impose taxes on those entities ourselves, because that made us very competitive," he said. "We all had to adapt as it was to ensure that our jurisdiction was not considered cooperative in tax matters."

He added that this amendment would "brings us more in line and completes our commitment going back to December 2018 that we would have complied with the guidelines we negotiated with the European Union."

Minister Byron said that Bill had had extensive consultations over the past few years and disseminated information across different platforms.

"The Department of Internal Revenue and the Government Intelligence Service have posted this bill on their websites for feedback and consultations by all stakeholders," he said. 'Madam the Deputy Speaker, the Department of Home Revenue has emailed this bill and others to all stakeholders on its mailing list to ensure that no stone is left unturned in terms of its distribution. The department would have facilitated several consultations with individual stakeholders to explain how the bill would affect operations if parliament passed them. ”

The Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2021, had its first reading on 17 November 2020.