The economic and financial affairs council (ECOFIN) has moved Namibia to the lower-risk annex II of the EU’s list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions.
This leaves five jurisdictions listed in annex I: American Samoa, Guam, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago and the US Virgin Islands.
Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, and Grenada have joined the OECD’s inclusive framework on BEPS, bringing to 123 the total number of countries and jurisdictions participating on an equal footing in the project.
The UK and Austria signed a new double taxation agreement on 23 October 2018. When it enters into force, the new agreement will replace the 1969 double taxation convention between the two countries.
See https://bit.ly/2OODHQg.
The Treasury has added the Bahamas to its list of foreign jurisdictions regarded as posing risks through their unsatisfactory money laundering controls. This follows recommendations of the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF), issued after its October meeting.
Jersey has tabled a draft ‘Taxation Companies Economic Substance Law’, designed to satisfy the economic substance’ test applied to the EU’s tax havens blacklist of jurisdictions.
Countries must step up work to ensure that tax authorities and anti-corruption authorities can effectively co-operate in the fight against tax evasion, bribery, and other forms of corruption, according to a joint OECD/World Bank report.
The government has published ‘synthesised’ texts of the UK’s double taxation conventions with Yugoslavia and Slovenia, as modified by the BEPS multilateral instrument (MLI), which the UK has concluded with Serbia and Slovenia.
We understand that the EU Council legal service has issued an opinion that the Commission’s proposal for a digital services tax (DST) is unlawful, as it is not an indirect tax within TFEU art 113.