The Council of the European Union (CEU) has updated the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. This list includes international jurisdictions that have failed to either engage in a discussion with the EU on tax governance or fulfill their commitments to ensure good governance tax reforms. These reforms concern transparent and fair taxation and international standards to check tax base erosion and profit shifting.
The CEU amended its list based on the ratings supplied by OECD Global Forum for Transparency and Exchange of Information. Only jurisdictions that are rated ‘largely compliant’ or higher with the international standard on transparency and exchange of information on request are eligible to be included in the CEU’s list. However, the CEU has now included Dominica in the list even as the Global Forum rated it ‘partially compliant’. Earlier in 2020, the CEU had added Barbados to the list after the Global Forum rated it ‘partially compliant’. Barbados will now undergo a supplementary review by the Global Forum. The CEU has thus transferred it to the EU’s state-of-play document. This document lists jurisdictions that are not fully compliant with international tax standards but have committed to enforce taxation reforms.
Meanwhile, the CEU has removed Morocco, Namibia and Saint Lucia from this document as they have fulfilled all their commitments. It has added Jamaica following the jurisdiction’s commitment to address the issues with its harmful tax regime before 2023. The CEU has also given more time to Australia and Jordan to fulfil their commitments.
Overall, after this latest amendment to the CEU’s list, there are 12 non-cooperative jurisdictions. These include American Samoa, Anguilla, Dominica, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, the US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu. On the other hand, 9 jurisdictions have committed to amend their tax policies to become more compliant in the future. These include Australia, Barbados, Botswana, Eswatini, Jamaica, Jordan, Maldives, Thailand and Turkey.
Source: Council of the European Union