EU Tax Blacklist To Be Slimmed By Nine

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

22 January 2018

At its meeting on January 22, the EU Council is to remove Barbados, Grenada, South Korea, Macao, Mongolia, Panama, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates from the EU's list of non-cooperative jurisdictions in taxation matters, according to an agenda released prior to the meeting.

The EU Council said the decisions "follows commitments made by these jurisdictions since the list was published on December 5, 2017."

The agenda for the meeting, newly published by the Government of Luxembourg, states that "letters signed at political level have been assessed, and member states agree that the commitments made justify removing these eight jurisdictions from the list."

It said: "The decision is due to be taken without discussion, by an amendment to the Council's December conclusions. The eight jurisdictions will be moved from annex I of the conclusions (non-cooperative jurisdictions) to annex II (cooperation with respect to commitments taken)."

The decision will leave nine of the original 17 jurisdictions on the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions. These are: American Samoa, Bahrain, Guam, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Palau, Saint Lucia, Samoa, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The EU Council stated: "Whereas the list is to be revised at least once a year, the working group responsible for preparing it can recommend an update at any time. Letters are due to be sent in February 2018 to eight jurisdictions in the Caribbean, requesting that commitments be made to remedy EU concerns. These jurisdictions were included in the initial screening process that led to establishment of the list. However, the screening was put on hold following the tropical storms that struck the Caribbean region in September 2017."

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