EU tax haven blacklist

Today, European finance ministers updated the EU tax havens list. They added Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and Seychelles to the blacklist and removed the British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica and the Marshall Islands.

Responding to the announcement that the Cayman Islands has been removed from the EU tax haven blacklist, Chiara Putaturo, Oxfam’s EU Tax Policy Advisor, said: “While we welcome the addition of Barbados, removing the Cayman Islands, one of the world’s most notorious tax havens, from the EU tax haven blacklist is further proof that the process isn’t working."

 

 

Panama, the Cayman Islands and the Seychelles have rightly been added to the EU tax haven blacklist. However, the list still proves inadequate, said Oxfam today.

The EU has whitewashed two of the world’s most harmful tax havens in today's review of the its tax haven list, says Oxfam.

European Union finance ministers have removed the British territory of Bermuda, Barbados, and the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba from the EU blacklist of tax havens today.

EU Finance Ministers must ensure countries removed from the tax haven blacklist deliver significant reforms, said Oxfam today, following an announcement that the Caribbean Islands of the Bahamas, and Saint Kitts and Nevis have been taken off the list.

With a growing EU gray list of tax havens, the EU must make sure countries follow up on their commitments, or else blacklist them, Oxfam said.

The European Council has started to publish the commitments taken by countries to escape the EU blacklist of tax havens. Governments must now pressure all tax havens on the EU's grey list to make their commitments public, and the EU must ensure tax havens implement the reforms they have promised, or else blacklist them.

It is very good news that the European Commission seems ready to finally tackle harmful tax competition inside the European Union, Oxfam said in reaction to a report criticising seven EU member states for their aggressive tax policies. The organisation also welcomed the increased pressure on tax havens greylisted by the EU to make their reform commitments public.