Repentance regulation no carte blanche for more easy money

January 2, 2012

WILLEMSTAD — In an Order from the Minister of Finance of December 6th 2011, the extremely generous repentance regulation is curtailed. From a previous Order of April 7th 2011, it was clearly the Minister’s intention that the Public Prosecutor (OM) would not prosecute those who choose to report undeclared income from legal activities – despite the decision of the Supreme Court in 2008 that failing to report earnings – even if these were gained from legal sources – could be a basis to launder money.“Remarkable promises with far-reaching consequences”, said former state secretary of Finance and leader of Pais, Alex Rosaria, “because the tax department actually has no authority to determine whether the OM may take action or not.” According to him, that would have been a carte blanche to launder money. As mentioned by the extraparliamentary party earlier, the Governor had a problem signing the new tax plan that establishes the repentance regulation. We would have a constitutional crisis, said Rozier, if the Governor did not sign, but the choice was made to whistle back the Minister of Finance to amend and curtail the regulation through a second Order.

This is another omen for Pais on this government’s cool-headedness when it comes to giving the huge financers of the previous political campaign preferential treatment. The Minister’s urgency to privilege the financers appears from his Order of April 7th 2011, which announced that taxpayers wanting to qualify for this repentance regulation could report to the Inspector before the implementation of the Tax Plan 2011. The funny thing is that an Order had been issued in April 11th at all. After all, the Minister of finance is only authorized to promulgate such Order with additional rules insofar the tax regulation doesn’t determine otherwise. On the other hand, the General National Regulation National Taxes (ALL) already provides a repentance regulation. “The strange thing is that our State members had not queried the legality of the Order. What’s worse, is how this Minister – at all costs – had wanted to force through the regulation detrimental for the country while the report from the Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce of December last gave Curaçao the yellow card for non-effective observance of the rules against money laundering and financing of terrorism”, said Rosaria.

Source: Amigoe.com