The list comes as part of the Commission’s plan to reform corporate taxation in the EU, in which it sets out a series of initiatives to tackle tax avoidance, secure sustainable revenues, and strengthen the single market for businesses.
“[The list] can be used to screen non-cooperative tax jurisdictions and develop a common EU strategy to deal with them,” said the Commission. “As such, it will reinforce member states’ collective defence system against external threats to their revenues.”
Pierre Moscovici, the European commissioner for tax, added that the blacklist is a “decisive step” to “push non-cooperative non-EU jurisdictions to be more cooperative and adopt international standards”.
To form the list, the EU assessed countries on their compliance with transparency & exchange of information standards and absence of harmful tax measures. Those on the list have been flagged up by 10 or more EU member states.
Astonishment
Guernsey Finance, the representative body for Guernsey’s financial industry, said it was “astonished” at the island’s inclusion, arguing that it only officially appears on nine countries’ blacklists.
Chief minister, Jonathan Le Tocq, said he had written to the Commission to express “disappointment and surprise” at being included on the list, adding that its priority is to be removed.
“The Commission appears to have hurriedly put together a list of so called ‘non-cooperative’ non-EU jurisdictions using some very arbitrary criteria,” he said. “It is this type of arbitrary and inconsistent use of ‘blacklists’ that international standards are supposed to be replacing, so this seems to me to run counter to what the Commission is trying to do on tax transparency.”
Commerce and employment minister, Kevin Stewart, added: “We will be seeking to be removed from this list as quickly as possible, and will work with the Commission as well as our partners in the EU member states in order to do so.”
The Commission’s list of non-cooperate tax jurisdictions is as follows: Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Grenada, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Monaco, Montserrat, Nauru, Niue, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Seychelles, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands, Vanuatu.
