EU Removes Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and 2 Others from Tax Haven Blacklist

• The European Union (EU) removed the Bahamas, Belize, Seychelles, and Turks and Caicos from its tax havens blacklist on Tuesday, February 20.
• The EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes was established in December 2017. It is part of the EU’s external strategy on taxation and aims to contribute to ongoing efforts to promote tax good governance worldwide.
• Concerning the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands, since October 2022, deficiencies in the enforcement of economic substance requirements have been identified in both of these jurisdictions by the OECD Forum of Harmful Tax Practices (FHTP).
• In the FHTP’s most recent assessment, the recommendations to both jurisdictions to remedy these deficiencies were converted from “hard” to “soft” recommendations, which allowed the Code of Conduct Group to consider these jurisdictions compliant with the standard for jurisdictions with no or only a nominal corporate income tax.
• That said, the list, approved by the EU's member states, now counts 12 jurisdictions deemed non-cooperative for tax purposes, particularly when it comes to sharing tax information. The remaining jurisdictions are American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Russia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.
• This EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions (Annex I) includes countries that either have not engaged in a constructive dialogue with the EU on tax governance or have failed to deliver on their commitments to implement the necessary reforms.

(Source: Council of the EU and the European Council)