The EU maintains Panama despite the European Commission taking it from the list of high-risk third countries
The 27 agreed on Tuesday, 8 October, to withdraw Antigua and Barbuda from their black list of tax havens, a decision that reduces the list to eleven jurisdictions that the European Union (EU) considers non-cooperative for tax purposes and among those that keeps Panama despite the fact that the Commission removed it from the list of high-risk third countries for the EU financial system.
The EU listing includes countries that have not engaged in a constructive dialogue on tax governance or have not fulfilled their commitments to implement the necessary reforms and should aim to meet a set of objective criteria for good tax governance, such as transparency, fair taxation or the implementation of international standards designed to prevent the erosion of the tax base and the transfer of profits.
With the changes introduced on Tuesday, the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes is reduced to eleven members: Anguilla, Fiji, Guam, Palau, United States Virgin Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Panama, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu.
Antigua and Barbuda was included in the EU’s Blacklist of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes in October 2023, following a negative assessment by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Global Forum on the exchange of information on request.
Following changes to the rules applicable in Antigua and Barbuda, the Global Forum has granted it a follow-up review, to be carried out in the near future, pending the final outcome.
The EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes was established in December 2017 and is part of the EU’s external tax strategy with the aim of contributing to ongoing efforts to promote good tax governance worldwide.