Tax haven blacklist ‘not credible’ if four EU countries excluded

By Kirsten Hastings, 29 Nov 17

To stop its blacklist being whitewashed, the European Union should include Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands on its list of tax havens when it is published on 5 December, Oxfam has warned.

Illustration and Painting

The three criteria for inclusion on the blacklist outlined by the EU, and mimicked by Oxfam, were:

Tax transparency: Countries are exchanging information automatically and on request; countries are part of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.

Fair taxation: Countries have no harmful preferential tax measures; countries do not facilitate offshore structures or arrangements aimed at attracting profits which do not reflect real economic activity in the jurisdiction. Zero percent tax rate is used as an indicator. It is important to note that the EU did not disclose the exact methodology for how it will assess this criterion. Oxfam therefore used economic indicators aiming at only capturing countries granting tax advantages without any real economic activity taking place in that country.

Implementation of anti-Beps measures: Countries apply or commit to OECD anti-Beps minimum standards.

Jurisdiction	Fails criterion 1	Fails criterion 2	Fails criterion 3
Albania			X
Anguilla			X
Antigua and Barbuda	X		X
Aruba			X
Bahamas		X	X
Bahrain			X
Bermuda		X
Bosnia & Herzegovina	X		X
British Virgin Islands		X
Cooks Islands			X
Cayman Islands		X
Curacao		X
Faroe Islands	X		X
FYR Macedonia			X
Gibraltar			X
Greenland			X
Guam	X		X
Hong Kong		X
Jersey		X
Marshall Islands			X
Mauritius		X
Montenegro	X		X
Nauru			X
New Caledonia	X		X
Niue			X
Oman	X
Palau	X		X
Serbia	X		X
Singapore		X
Switzerland		X	X
Taiwan	X		X
Trinidad & Tobago	X		X
UAE			X
US Virgin Islands	X		X
Vanuatu	X		X