The Council of the European Union has removed four countries from the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes which includes The Bahamas, Belize and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The fourth country is Seychelles.
A statement issued on February 20, 2024 said with these updates, the EU list now consists of the following 12 jurisdictions:
- American Samoa
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Fiji
- Guam
- Palau
- Panama
- Russia
- Samoa
- Trinidad and Tobago
- US Virgin Islands
- Vanuatu
The Council said it regrets that these jurisdictions are not yet cooperative on tax matters and invites them to improve their legal framework in order to resolve the identified issues. The countries listed are within the scope of the EU screening process.
Meanwhile, the EU said concerning The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands, ever since October 2022, deficiencies in the enforcement of economic substance requirements had been identified in both of these jurisdictions by the OECD Forum of Harmful Tax Practices (FHTP). In the FHTP’s most recent assessment, the recommendations to both jurisdictions to remedy these deficiencies were converted from “hard” to “soft” recommendations, which allowed the Code of Conduct Group to consider these jurisdictions compliant with the standard for jurisdictions with no or only a nominal corporate income tax.
Meanwhile, in October 2023, Belize and Seychelles were included in the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes after a negative assessment from the OECD Global Forum with regard to exchange of information on request. Following changes to the applicable rules in these jurisdictions, the Global Forum has granted them both a supplementary review, which will be undertaken in the near future.
Pending the outcome of this review, Belize and Seychelles have been included in the relevant section of Annex II, which is, in addition to the list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, the Council approved the usual state of play document (Annex II) which reflects the ongoing EU cooperation with its international partners and the commitments of these countries to reform their legislation to adhere to agreed tax good governance standards.
The EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes was established in December 2017.
It is part of the EU’s external strategy on taxation and aims to contribute to ongoing efforts to promote tax good governance worldwide. Jurisdictions are assessed on the basis of a set of criteria laid down by the Council.
The next revision of the list is scheduled for October 2024.
