LUXEMBOURG – The European Union today announced that its revised tax haven blacklist removes Anguilla, Dominica and the Seychelles, which non-governmantal organisation Oxfam immediately called “a joke” given the Pandora Papers revelations.
The list, approved by EU finance ministers meeting here, now counts nine jurisdictions deemed non-cooperative for tax purposes, particularly when it comes to sharing tax information under an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development agreement.
It features three United States territories – American Samoa, Guam and the Virgin Islands – as well as Fiji, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu.
Anguilla, Dominica and the Seychelles are downgraded to an annex grey list the EU keeps of jurisdictions considered to be committed to international tax standards, but are not yet there.
Other territories added to the grey list are Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Malaysia, North Macedonia, Qatar and Uruguay, according to a statement by the European Council.
The statement said Australia, Eswatini and the Maldives are removed from the grey list.
Oxfam, a British charity campaigning against global poverty, in a statement said the EU’s list is ineffective and insufficient given the Pandora Papers.
The massive trove of leaked documents shows how the world’s elite is using tax havens and offshore and shell companies to stash assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“The EU is shutting its eyes to real tax havens while considering blacklisting poor countries that do not sign up to the imminent global tax agreement,” said Oxfam’s EU tax expert Chiara Putaturo.
“Today’s decision to delist Anguilla, the only remaining jurisdiction with a 0% tax rate, and the Seychelles, which are at the heart of the latest tax scandal, renders the EU’s blacklist a joke.
“While the Pandora Papers investigation blew the lid on how the super-rich continue to use tax havens to avoid paying their taxes, ordinary people are asked to foot the Covid-19 recovery bill.” – AFP, October 5, 2021
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