On 5 December, ECOFIN ministers agreed and published the EU’s blacklist of 17 ‘non-cooperative’ tax jurisdictions. A further 47 countries are identified as having made a commitment to addressing deficiencies in their tax systems, and will be blacklisted if they fail to do so by the end of 2018 (or 2019 for developing countries). The 17 blacklisted states are:
American Samoa
Bahrain
Barbados
Grenada
Guam
Korea (Republic of)
Macao SAR
Marshall Islands
Mongolia
Namibia
Palau
Panama
Saint Lucia
Samoa
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
United Arab Emirates
As a first step, all 17 jurisdictions on the EU list will receive a letter explaining the decision and what they can do to be de-listed. A first interim progress report should be published by mid-2018. The list will be updated at least once a year.
The governments of Bermuda, Guernsey and Jersey have welcomed the EU’s reaffirmation of their ‘cooperative’ status, although the EU has asked all three jurisdictions take further steps to support economic substance.
In a bid to push forward EU policy on tax avoidance by multinationals and wealthy individuals, the European Commission is reported to be considering invoking article 116 of TFEU, to compel member states to accept qualified majority voting on tax matters, where there is distortion of competition in the EU market. When asked about article 116 at the launch of the EU’s new VAT fraud package on 30 November, taxation commissioner Pierre Moscovici said: ‘we certainly don’t exclude using it. We will work on it. We will make proposals in that direction’.
In his ‘State of the EU’ address in September, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker expressed his wish to see the requirement for unanimity dropped for tax matters, which has helped frustrate moves towards the CCCTB.
On 5 December, ECOFIN ministers agreed and published the EU’s blacklist of 17 ‘non-cooperative’ tax jurisdictions. A further 47 countries are identified as having made a commitment to addressing deficiencies in their tax systems, and will be blacklisted if they fail to do so by the end of 2018 (or 2019 for developing countries). The 17 blacklisted states are:
American Samoa
Bahrain
Barbados
Grenada
Guam
Korea (Republic of)
Macao SAR
Marshall Islands
Mongolia
Namibia
Palau
Panama
Saint Lucia
Samoa
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
United Arab Emirates
As a first step, all 17 jurisdictions on the EU list will receive a letter explaining the decision and what they can do to be de-listed. A first interim progress report should be published by mid-2018. The list will be updated at least once a year.
The governments of Bermuda, Guernsey and Jersey have welcomed the EU’s reaffirmation of their ‘cooperative’ status, although the EU has asked all three jurisdictions take further steps to support economic substance.
In a bid to push forward EU policy on tax avoidance by multinationals and wealthy individuals, the European Commission is reported to be considering invoking article 116 of TFEU, to compel member states to accept qualified majority voting on tax matters, where there is distortion of competition in the EU market. When asked about article 116 at the launch of the EU’s new VAT fraud package on 30 November, taxation commissioner Pierre Moscovici said: ‘we certainly don’t exclude using it. We will work on it. We will make proposals in that direction’.
In his ‘State of the EU’ address in September, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker expressed his wish to see the requirement for unanimity dropped for tax matters, which has helped frustrate moves towards the CCCTB.
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