by Julie Martin
The Bahamas, US Virgin Islands, and Saint Kitts and Nevis will be added to the EU’s blacklist of non-cooperative third-country tax havens on March 13 during an EU finance ministers meeting, Reuters has reported, citing a leaked EU document dated March 8.
This latest leak follows a widely-reported earlier leak that the EU Code of Conduct Group has recommended that Bahrain, the Marshall Islands, and Saint Lucia be removed from the EU blacklist. This should also happen at Tuesday’s meeting.
The EU tax blacklist, first published December 2017, identifies non-EU countries considered by the EU to have failed standards of tax transparency, fair taxation, or implementation of OECD/G20 base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) minimum standards. The original list was comprised of 17 countries, though that number dropped to 9 after 8 counties pledged to improve their tax systems.
The Bahamas, US Virgin Islands, and Saint Kitts and Nevis were not previously assessed by the EU for compliance with the EU standards on account of being badly hit by hurricanes in summer 2017 and thus unable to respond.
These three countries plus five other nations hit by hurricanes — British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, and Turks and Caicos — had been given until early 2018 to respond to the EU’s concerns. It remains unclear whether the five other previously unassessed countries have been now been deemed cooperative by the EU or if their review remains incomplete.
If events unfold as expected, after Tuesday the blacklist will be comprised of the following countries: American Samoa, Guam, Namibia, Palau, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Bahamas, US Virgin Islands, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Many more countries, including countries used heavily in MNE tax structures like Switzerland, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands, are on the EU’s “gray” list of countries that do not meet the EU requirements but that have pledged to change their rules. If these promised changes do not in fact occur, these countries will be shifted to the blacklist, the EU says.
Julie Martin
Julie Martin is the founder of MNE Tax. She edits the publication and regularly contributes articles on new developments in cross-border business taxation.
Julie has worked as a tax journalist and editor for more than 13 years. Prior to that, she worked as an in-house tax attorney in New York. She also holds an LLM in taxation from New York University School of Law.
Julie can be reached at [email protected].
Latest posts by Julie Martin (see all)
- UN committee considers updates to model tax treaty, developing nation tax guidance - April 21, 2021
- UN Committee of Experts approves new digital tax article for model treaty - April 20, 2021
- Leaked copy of US proposal for Pillar One and Two multinational group tax reforms available - April 12, 2021
- US offers new “Pillar One” compromise plan for taxing large multinationals - April 8, 2021
- UN tax committee releases updated model treaty language on automated digital services - April 7, 2021
Be the first to comment