EU Commission updates list of third countries considered non-cooperative for tax purposes by EU states

The EU Commission announced October 12 that it has made changes to its consolidated list of non-EU countries deemed non-cooperative for tax purposes, as identified by the Member States.

The updates to the list, located on the Commission’s website, reflect changes in Member States’ assessments of third countries’ tax good governance standards, corrections to national lists, and Estonia’s decision to withdraw all countries from its national list, the Commission said.

The consolidated list was released as a part of the EU Action Plan for Fair and Effective Taxation, issued June 17. According to the action plan, it is designed to offer member states a tool “to compare their national lists and adjust their respective approaches to non-cooperative tax jurisdictions as necessary.”

EU Tax Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said that the EU’s current approach to tax havens varies from state to state and fails to stop countries’ bad behavior. The initiative is designed to give EU states “collective weight” to put an end to external threats to their tax bases, he said.

When the list was first published in June, the Commission also listed all third countries that were named by at least 10 EU member states as being non-compliant. The Commission’s update does indicate whether that list has changed or not.

See:

• Tax good governance in the world as seen by EU countries – European Commission

Related MNE Tax Articles:

• EU to advance proposal for mandatory CCCTB, consults on public release of country-by-country data

• EU tax haven blacklist disputed by OECD and listed countries

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UPDATE (10/14/2015): Hong Kong Treasury notes the removal of Hong Kong from Spain and Estonia’s blacklists: The government said that allegations that Hong Kong are a tax haven are unfounded. See, release.