By: Staff Writer
February 23, 2024
The European Union removed The Bahamas, Belize, Seychelles and Turks and Caicos Islands from the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.
The countries in the region still left on the list are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago and the US Virgin Islands.
The EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes is part of the EU’s work to fight tax evasion and avoidance. It is composed of countries which have failed to fulfil their commitments to comply with tax good governance criteria within a specific timeframe, and countries which have refused to do so.
Concerning 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.
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.
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.