In addition to Russia, the European Union has also decided to add Costa Rica, the British Virgin Islands and the Marshall Islands to the list of countries considered tax havens.
The Ministers of Economy and Finance of the Twenty-seven have decided this Tuesday, February 14, to include Russia in their list of tax havens that is renewed every six months. After this change, the list of territories that do not cooperate with the European Union (EU) goes from a dozen countries to 16, since the European bloc has also decided to add Costa Rica, the British Virgin Islands and the Marshall Islands.
The finance ministers justify the decision to include Russia since the legislation put in place in 2022 does not respect European standards on the judicial treatment of international holdings. The geopolitical implications of this step are not lost on anyone, taking into account the war in Ukraine and the fact that the dialogue on this issue was paralyzed almost a year ago with the start of the invasion.
The purpose of creating this list has been always establish a dialogue with the different territories so that they correct their bad practices and hence the constant changes when it comes to including or removing new members from the list, informed the portal The reason from Spain.
The European bloc blacklists “those countries that have not entered into a constructive dialogue with the EU on tax governance or have not fulfilled their commitments to implement the necessary reforms,” according to the statement of the Twenty-seven.
These reforms include fiscal transparency, fair taxes, and international standards designed to prevent financial engineering with the artificial transfer of profits from one territory to another.
The EU has stopped considering North Macedonia as tax havens, in the process of joining the bloc after being considered a candidate country, Barbados, Jamaica and Uruguay.
Spain updates list
Spain updated its list of tax havens, with 24 jurisdictions that it considers “non-cooperative”, leaving out Panama, which had previously been in the report. The information was released by the Official State Gazette (BOE), which includes the update approved by the Ministry of Finance of Spain.
The list introduces a turn in the terminology in accordance with the new international parameters, since we no longer speak of “tax havens”, but of non-cooperative jurisdictions, as part of the language of the EU and the Organization for Cooperation and Development Economic (OECD).
The list of non-cooperative jurisdictions meets criteria not only of transparency, but also of fiscal equity, identifying those countries characterized by facilitating the existence of offshore companies aimed at attracting benefits without real economic activity, or due to the existence of low or no taxation, or, due to its opacity and lack of transparency, indicates that the official gazette reviewed by the newspaper The Press from Panama.
A non-cooperative country is also one in which there are no applicable mutual assistance regulations regarding the exchange of tax information, due to the absence of an effective exchange with Spain or due to the results of the evaluations carried out by the Global Transparency Forum.
The Ministry of Finance indicates that in the EU the existence of the list has been configured as an instrument to promote good tax governance at the international level.
In fact, since its first publication in 1991, many countries have taken concrete steps to meet good governance standards. More than 120 harmful regimes have been removed and dozens of countries have adopted international standards for transparency and information sharing.
“Therefore, it can be affirmed that the establishment of lists is an adequate instrument to promote transparency and fair taxation,” they add.
These are the territories that appear on the 2023 list: Anguilla, Bahrain, Barbados, Bermuda, Dominica, Fiji, Gibraltar, Guam, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Mariana Islands, Solomon Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands , British Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, Jersey, Palau, Samoa, as regards the harmful tax regime (offshore business), American Samoa, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu.
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