No Surprises On New OECD Blacklist

by Caroline Maxwell, Tax-News.com, London

19 April 2002

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Thursday released its amended 'blacklist' of countries considered uncooperative in the drive for transparency of tax affairs and the effective exchange of information.

Andorra, Liechtenstein, Liberia, Monaco, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Vanuatu, were all named as jurisdictions which have not yet made commitments to reform their tax regimes.

In a statement released yesterday, the Chair of the OECD's Committee on Fiscal Affairs, Gabriel Makhlouf, commented: 'The real success of the project so far is that we have received commitments from 31 jurisdictions to the OECD's principles of transparency and effective exchange of information.' He admitted that the multilateral body was 'disappointed' that the seven remaining jurisdictions had not yet reached an agreement over the issue, but said that the OECD would like to maintain contact with them in order to facilitate the process.

'The success of this co-operation can already be seen in the models for exchange of information developed jointly by a number of the jurisdictions and the OECD,' he continued, citing the pacts reached with Aruba, Bermuda, Bahrain, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, the Isle of Man, Malta, Mauritius, the Netherland Antilles, San Marino, and the Seychelles, as examples.

The Fiscal Affairs Committee chief then attempted to reassure both committed an uncommitted nations that their desire for a level playing field had been taken into account.

'Financial services are extremely mobile and it is in no one's interest that harmful activities move to jurisdictions that do not meet acceptable standards of transparency and effective exchange of information,' he explained.

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