Philipsburg:--- Minister of Finance Hon. Hiro Shigemoto says that he expects significant progress to be made in tax reform in 2012.
The Ministry of Finance is currently steering the process to revamp the country's tax system making it easy to understand, easy to collect and leading to economic efficiency, fairness, transparency, and a stable and predictable system to fund public expenditures.
At the end of 2010 and early 2011, a Tax Reform Workgroup was established to lay the ground work, and at the end of the process identified a number of areas and made several recommendations.
During a working visit to the Netherlands in October 2011, the Minister of Finance met with consortium Taxand/A&M Taxand/VMW Taxand, the largest independent global tax organization which provides tax advice to clients worldwide.
In November a contract was signed with Taxand/A&M Taxand/VMW Taxand/Taxand Curacao to work along with the country's tax authorities to redesign the tax system; assist the Ministry of Finance and the Tax Authority in building a modern state-of-the-art tax administration; and to significantly improve the process of tax compliance management.
In the coming months meetings will be held with stakeholders once a preliminary design of the new tax system has been drafted to get the latter's input.
"I am confident that we are on track to put in place a reformed tax system for the country in 2013. Everybody is upbeat and working diligently with respect to designing a system that is best suited for our economy.
"This is a joint effort involving the Island Receiver, the Tax Inspectorate and Taxand/A&M Taxand/VMW Taxand/Taxand Curacao. As a nation, the safety and security of the country, the health of our citizens, the provision of a dynamic education system, and ensuring vital public services are delivered, are among some of the areas that a reformed tax system should be able to generate the resources necessary to meet our country's commitments to the people and taxpayers," Minister of Finance Hon. Hiro Shigemoto said on Tuesday.
The Minister will be meeting with the St. Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association (SHTA) on Wednesday to discuss the Turn over Tax and tax matters.
Minister Shigemoto said the Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance attempted to schedule a meeting with the SHTA in December but the latter were not able to meet on any of the proposed dates.