BDO Corporate Tax News

The EU General Affairs Council on 8 October 2024 released its biannual update of the list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions (for prior coverage, see the article in the February 2024 issue of Corporate Tax News). Antigua and Barbuda have been removed, leaving 11 jurisdictions on the list (for prior coverage, see the item in the Bytes column in the November 2023 issue of Corporate Tax News):

• American Samoa
• Anguilla
• Fiji
• Guam
• Palau
• Panama
• Russia
• Samoa
• Trinidad and Tobago
• US Virgin Islands
• Vanuatu

Antigua and Barbuda were added to the noncooperative jurisdiction list one year ago but has been removed, contingent on a commitment to revise its tax rules (rather than actually revising the rules). The island nation is now included in the relevant section of the “grey list,” a list of (currently nine) jurisdictions with pending commitments:

• Belize
• British Virgin Islands
• Costa Rica
• Curaçao
• Eswatini (Special economic zone)
• Seychelles
• Türkiye
• Vietnam

The EU list of noncooperative jurisdictions was first published in 2017 as a tool to enhance tax transparency and combat tax fraud and avoidance. A jurisdiction is added to the list because it did not engage in a constructive dialogue with the EU or failed to fulfil its commitments to comply with tax good governance criteria or implement necessary reforms within a specific timeframe or simply refused to make changes. The criteria used for including a jurisdiction on the noncooperative list are based on international tax standards, such as transparency, fair taxation and implementation of the OECD BEPS minimum standards. The noncooperative list is accompanied by a second list of jurisdictions that have committed to make adjustments to their tax systems.

It should be noted that certain EU member states have their own domestic lists of noncooperative jurisdictions, which may or may not be in alignment with the EU list, so it may be necessary to check these lists as well.

The next update to the EU noncooperative jurisdiction list will take place in February 2025.

Frederik Boulogne
BDO in Netherlands