The Council of the European Union has adopted revised conclusions on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. In addition to the 8 jurisdictions that were already listed, the Council has decided that four additional jurisdictions should be added to its list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions. Those four jurisdictions are:
- Cayman Islands;
- Palau;
- Panama; and
- Seychelles.
None of these jurisdictions implement the tax reforms to which they had committed by the agreed deadline.
16 jurisdictions (Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cabo Verde, Cook Islands, Curaçao, Marshall Islands, Montenegro, Nauru, Niue, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Vietnam) managed to implement all the necessary reforms to comply with EU tax good governance principles ahead of the agreed deadline and are therefore removed from Annex II.
The list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, which is part of the EU’s external strategy for taxation as defined by the Council, is intended to contribute to ongoing efforts to promote tax good governance worldwide. It was first established in December 2017 and is based on a continuous and dynamic process of:
- establishing criteria in line with international tax standards;
- screening countries against these criteria;
- engaging with countries which do not comply;
- listing and de-listing countries as they commit or take action to comply;
- monitoring developments to ensure jurisdictions do not backtrack on previous reforms.
The list includes jurisdictions that have either not engaged in a constructive dialogue with the EU on tax governance or failed to deliver on their commitments to implement reforms to comply with the EU’s criteria on time.
The Council has stated that it will continue regularly to review and update the list in the coming years, taking into consideration the evolving deadlines for jurisdictions to deliver on their commitments and the evolution of the listing criteria that the EU uses to establish the list.
Further details of the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions can be found at https://bit.ly/37IWa5n .