Following its inclusion on the EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions on 18 February 2020, the Government of Seychelles has issued a press release on 21 February 2020 to explain the rationale of why they have been included in that list and to confirm its commitments for tax reforms to comply with the EU standards as quickly as possible.

Seychelles are already in dialogue with representatives from the Conduct Group on Business Taxation (CoCG) of the European Commission to address the concerns of the EU which is to ensure that its territorial tax regime applies only to entities that can demonstrate sufficient “economic substance”.

In that respect, the Government of Seychelles intends to introduce more detailed substance requirements in line with the international best practices whereby it will be ‘taxing the worldwide profits of its resident persons, where these persons do not sufficiently demonstrate that they are conducting activities in Seychelles, when compared to the amount of foreign income they are generating.” Seychelles intend to implement these reforms by the end of March 2020 deadline to ensure it adheres to the EU requirements.

Please click here to read the full press release.