Antigua and Barbuda is among 12 countries still remaining on the EU list of non-cooperative territories for tax purposes, following the bloc’s announcement yesterday that four countries have been removed from the list.
The Bahamas, Belize, Seychelles and the Turks and Caicos Islands have been removed from the non-cooperative jurisdictions list.
In October 2023, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and Seychelles were added to the EU blacklist for issues relating to a negative assessment from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Forum about their exchange of information on request.
Belize and Seychelles have since been removed, following reported rule changes in those countries, for which the OECD Global Forum has granted them both a supplementary review.
As such, they are now considered to be countries that are cooperating with the EU and have pending commitments.
The EU Council, in its press release announcing the removal of the four countries, said it was regretful that the 12 remaining countries were “not yet cooperative on tax matters, inviting them to improve their legal framework in order to resolve the identified issues”.
Trinidad and Tobago, Anguilla, the US Virgin Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Panama are among some of the other jurisdictions on this list.
The EU’s list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes was established in December 2017 as part of the EU’s external strategy on taxation, hoping to promote tax good governance worldwide.
Jurisdictions are assessed based on a set of criteria laid down by the EU Council, covering tax transparency, fair taxation and implementation of international standards designed to prevent tax base erosion and profit shifting.
The list is updated twice a year with the next revision of the list scheduled for October 2024.
Attempts to reach administration officials at press time were unsuccessful.
