Purisima urges Italy to remove PH from its blacklist of tax havens

The Government of the Philippines, through the Department of Finance and the Bureau of Internal Revenue, negotiated and concluded today the Protocol Amending the Convention between the Philippines and the Italian Republic for the Avoidance of Double Taxation with respect to Taxes in Income and Prevention of Fiscal Evasion originally signed on December 5, 1980.

Secretary of Finance Cesar Purisima and Italian Ambassador to the Philippines Massimo Roscigno led the signing of the Double Taxation Agreement at the Department of Finance which seeks to remove the Philippines from its blacklist of tax haven countries of those which have privileged tax regimes for the purpose of attracting foreign investments in their territories.

“We welcome the signing of the Philippine-Italy Double Taxation Agreement as a positive step towards competitiveness and fairness in taxation between our countries. We hope that with this move, the Italian authorities would remove the Philippines from its blacklist of tax havens, for the benefit of Italians residing in the Philippines, and the Filipinos in Italy who comprise the fourth largest immigrant nationality,” Purisima said.

In particular, the signing amended Article 25 of the Italy-Philippines DTA on the Exchange of Information, in accordance with the current tax treaty model of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations (UN), incorporating changes in the tax system of Italy.

The Protocol will need to be subsequently ratified and concurred into by the respective authorities of both governments.