Assistant Valuation Officer, Mr. David E Seales, and Tax Inspector at the Inland Revenue Department, Ms. Rhonda B. Jones, represented Grenada at the 20th Caribbean Organisation of Tax Administrators (COTA) General Assembly and Technical Conference in Belize.  

The meeting, which ran from July 21 – 24, 2008, focused its discussions on the region’s tax administration strategies.

According to Joe Waight, the Financial Secretary of Belize and main speaker of the forum, “Coordination and harmonization of the region’s tax structures are at the core of the region’s economic strategy…the entire region face serious fiscal challenges on the account of the current economic storm and ill economic winds which have become pronounced due to unprecedented rises in food and fuel prices…. It will take a harmonized incentive structure to increase activity in order to foster growth across the region.”

Countries represented at the conference included Anguilla, Bahamas, Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago among others.

They were joined by representatives from the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC), the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM), and the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD).

The conclusions which emerged from the conference will be used as a platform for the region’s tax systems and tax administration..