The government is confident that Malta will be removed from a list of 34 "offshore secrecy jurisdictions" included in the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act presented in the US Congress in March, and is closely monitoring the situation, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech told The Times Business.
"We fully expect to be removed from this list and we are monitoring developments," he said.
The Act, introduced by Democratic Senator Carl Levin, aims to restrict the use by US companies and individuals of offshore tax havens to avoid taxation. It envisages authorising the Treasury to impose financial sanctions on foreign jurisdictions and financial institutions found to be "impeding US tax enforcement".
The Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act gives the US Treasury Department discretion to "add or subtract from the list using certain criteria".
Mr Fenech said: "I am confident that the US Treasury will remove Malta's name from the list submitted in congress by Senator Levin. Malta is not a tax haven and the US government is fully aware of this, otherwise it would not have agreed to the double taxation agreement signed in March last year between Malta and the US.
"Furthermore, Malta was given a clean bill of health by the OECD in April when it presented its list of tax havens at the G20 summit in London. Out of four groups Malta is in the best list, the so-called 'White List' which consists of financial centres considered as being compliant with the OECD's standards for tax information exchange agreements. The G20 fully endorsed the OECD's report."
"Not even Belgium, Austria and Luxembourg, three EU member states, were included in this 'White List'," he said.
Mr Fenech pointed out that the list of so-called tax havens presented by Senator Levin seemed mainly to consist of small island states. "It seems that whoever compiled this list came to the conclusion that all small islands are tax havens. Malta certainly does not fit into this category," he said.
Asked to confirm whether the government had hired the lobbying services of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal to persuade the authorities in the US that Malta is a reputable and transparent tax jurisdiction, Mr Fenech replied in the affirmative.
Mr Fenech also said he was confident the double taxation agreement between Malta and the US, which still has to be ratified by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee despite it being signed over a year ago, will be ratified soon.
"There was a presidential election in the US last year which could have delayed the treaty's ratification. The US Senate is a very complex institution which is independent of the executive branch of the US government," he said.