EU has updated its list of countries that do not cooperate on tax

The European Union's Council of Ministers has reviewed and updated the list of non-cooperative countries and territories for tax purposes, adding Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and the Seychelles, and removing the British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica and the Marshall Islands from the list, which now includes sixteen jurisdictions. The European Union's Council of Finance Ministers (Ecofin) found that the countries and territories on the list were not cooperating on tax matters and asked them to work with the EU Code of Conduct Group to resolve problematic issues.

The EU has removed the British Virgin Islands from the list because the territory has amended its framework for information exchange. Costa Rica has been removed from the list since it has modified the harmful aspects of its foreign source exemption regime. The Marshall Islands was removed from the list as it had made significant progress in implementing the economic substance requirement. The EU list includes now Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, American Samoa, the Bahamas, Belize, the US Virgin Islands, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Russia, Samoa, the Seychelles, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Vanuatu and the Bahamas.

The revised EU list of tax non-cooperative countries and territories includes countries and territories that either do not engage in constructive dialogue with the EU on tax governance or have not fulfilled their commitments to implement the necessary reforms. These reforms should aim at ensuring that the countries and territories concerned meet objective criteria for good tax governance, which include tax transparency, fair taxation and the implementation of international standards aimed at preventing tax base erosion and profit shifting.

In addition to a list of countries and territories that are not cooperating on tax matters, the Council also approved a state of play paper reflecting ongoing cooperation between the EU and its international partners and commitments by these countries and territories to reform their legislation to comply with agreed standards of good governance in tax matters. The EU has removed four countries and territories from the current situation review. Jordan and Qatar have fulfilled their commitments by amending their harmful tax provisions, while Montserrat and Thailand have fulfilled all their outstanding commitments on country-by-country reporting on taxes paid.