European Union tax haven blacklist

Jurisdictions that do not comply with all three of these EC criteria are flagged as tax havens by the EU:[2]

• Transparency
• Fair Tax Competition
• BEPS implementation (the OECD's Base Erosion and Profit Shifting minimum standards)

The original list in 2017 contained additional countries. Of these, 25 countries have been cleared and removed from the list by March 2019: Andorra, Bahrain, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Grenada, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Jamaica, Jersey, Korea, Liechtenstein, Macao SAR, Malaysia, Montserrat, New Caledonia, Panama, Peru, Qatar, San Marino, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turks and Caicos, and Uruguay. An additional 34 countries that have committed to compliance by the end of 2019, and form a "grey list": Albania, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Australia, Bahamas, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Cabo Verde, Costa Rica, Curaçao, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Eswatini, Jordan, Maldives, Mauritius, Morocco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Namibia, North Macedonia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Serbia, Seychelles, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam.[2]

A number of countries have not yet been screened: In 2019 Russia, Mexico and Argentina are scheduled to be screened. Other countries are planned to be brought into the scope from 2020 onwards.[2]

On 27 March 2019, the European Parliament voted by 505 in favour to 63 against of accepting a new report that likened Luxembourg, Malta, Ireland and the Netherlands, and Cyprus to "display[ing] traits of a tax haven and facilitate aggressive tax planning".[4][5] However, despite this vote, the EU Commission is not obliged to include these EU jurisdictions on the blacklist.[6]

Following this latest revision in February 2023, the EU blacklist includes the following sixteen jurisdictions: American Samoa, Anguilla, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, Fiji, Guam, Marshall Islands, Palau, Panama, Russia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands, Vanuatu. In the 2023 update, British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, Marshall Islands and Russia were added and North Macedonia, Barbados, Jamaica and Uruguay were removed.[7] In the 2021 update, Dominica was added to the blacklist and Barbados was moved to the grey list, pending a supplementary review by the Global Forum. [8] [3]

Non-cooperative jurisdictions	Type of jurisdiction	Reasons for blacklisting
American Samoa	Unincorporated and unorganized U.S. territory	American Samoa does not apply any automatic exchange of financial information, has not signed and ratified, including through the jurisdiction they are dependent on, the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance as amended, did not commit to apply the BEPS minimum standards and did not commit to addressing these issues.
Anguilla	Autonomous British Overseas Territory	This is due to the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (the international standards for the exchange of information on request) downgrading the ratings of this jurisdiction to “non-compliant”
Bahamas	Island Country
British Virgin Islands	Autonomous British Overseas Territory	Not sufficiently in compliance with the OECD standard on exchange of information on request (criterion 1.2)
Costa Rica	Country	Has not fulfilled its commitment to abolish or amend the harmful aspects of its foreign source income exemption regime (criterion 2.1).
Fiji	Country	Fiji is not a member of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes ("Global Forum"), has not signed and ratified the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance as amended, has harmful preferential tax regimes, has not become a member of the Inclusive Framework on BEPS or implemented OECD anti-BEPS minimum standard, and has not resolved these issues yet.
Guam	Unincorporated and organized U.S. territory	Guam does not apply any automatic exchange of financial information, has not signed and ratified, including through the jurisdiction they are dependent on, the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance as amended, did not commit to apply the BEPS minimum standards and did not commit to addressing these issues.
Marshall Islands	Island Country	Concerns that this jurisdiction which has a zero or only nominal rate of corporate income tax is attracting profits without real economic activity (criterion 2.2 of the EU list). In particular, the Marshall Islands were found to be lacking in the enforcement of economic substance requirements.
Palau	Country	Palau does not apply any automatic exchange of financial information, has not signed and ratified the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance as amended, and has not resolved these issues yet.
Panama	Country	Panama does not have a rating of at least “Largely Compliant” by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes for Exchange of Information on Request and has not resolved this issue yet.
Russia	Country	Code of conduct group screened Russia’s new legislation adopted in 2022 against the good tax governance criteria of the code and found that Russia had not fulfilled its commitment to address the harmful aspects of a special regime for international holding companies (criterion 2.1). In addition, dialogue with Russia on matters related to taxation came to a standstill following the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Samoa	Country	Samoa has a harmful preferential tax regime and did not commit to addressing this issue. Furthermore, Samoa committed to comply with criterion 3.1 by the end of 2018 but has not resolved this issue yet.
Trinidad and Tobago	Island Country
Turks and Caicos Islands	Autonomous British Overseas Territory
U.S. Virgin Islands	Unincorporated and organized U.S. territory	US Virgin Islands does not apply any automatic exchange of financial information, has not signed and ratified, including through the jurisdiction they are dependent on, the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance as amended, has harmful preferential tax regimes, did not commit to apply the BEPS minimum standards and did not commit to addressing these issues.
Vanuatu	Country	Vanuatu does not have a rating of at least “Largely Compliant” by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes for Exchange of Information on Request, facilitates offshore structures and arrangements aimed at attracting profits without real economic substance and has not resolved these issues yet.