Seychelles, Dominica and Anguilla are no longer on the black list

At Tuesday's meeting in Luxembourg, the European Union's finance ministers (Ecofin) approved the removal of Seychelles, Dominica and Anguilla from the black list of tax havens. The three countries have so far been on the Union list of non-cooperating jurisdictions for tax purposes because they did not meet European Union criteria for tax transparency. The decision of the ministers to remove them from the blacklist was preceded by a decision of the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to allow for further review of disputed tax issues in these jurisdictions. Panama was originally supposed to be removed from the European Union's blacklist, but it did not succeed in its request because it did not submit a commitment to repeal or amend the harmful exemption regime for foreign income taxes. The updated EU blacklist includes nine tax jurisdictions: US Samoa, US Virgin Islands, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu. Blacklisted countries are subject to stricter controls on financial transactions with the EU. Seychelles, Dominica and Anguilla will be on the "gray list" of countries that have shown a commitment to tax reforms pending the outcome of the agreed complementary review. The gray list covers tax jurisdictions that do not yet comply with all international tax standards, but which have committed themselves to the principles of good governance in the tax area. The gray list also includes Hong Kong, Qatar, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Northern Macedonia and Uruguay, and Turkey remains there, as Ankara continues to hinder the automatic exchange of tax information with Cyprus, an European Union Member State. Australia, the Maldives and Swaziland have already implemented all the necessary tax reforms, so ministers removed them from the gray list on Tuesday.