The Minister of Finance, Hon. Colm Imbert, MP, wishes to advise that in January 2025, Trinidad and Tobago was deemed by the OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices to be free from harmful tax practices, and removed from the list of countries with such practices in February 2025.

The OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices (FHTP) has been conducting reviews of preferential tax regimes for the last 25 years to determine whether the regimes could be harmful to the tax base of other jurisdictions. Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) – where multinationals shift profits to low or no-tax locations where they have little or no economic activity or erode tax bases through deductible payments, such as interest or royalties – cost countries throughout the world billions in lost revenue annually. BEPS practices undermine the fairness and integrity of tax systems because businesses that operate across borders can use them to gain a competitive advantage over enterprises operating at the domestic level. In a broader context, when large corporations avoid income tax, they undermine voluntary compliance by all taxpayers.