Today, March 12, the Finance Ministers of the member States of the European Union added to the list of “tax havens” another 10 countries, standards which in the field of taxation do not meet the requirements of the EU, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), reports “Interfax-Ukraine”.
As stated by the European Commissioner for economic and financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici, in the “black list” includes 15 jurisdictions that “have either failed to fulfill the obligations of the compliance with the required criteria, or do not even take on such obligations”.
In addition to the five jurisdictions already included in the list of “tax havens” — American Samoa, GUAM, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and U.S. virgin Islands, added another 10 — Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Dominica, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Oman, Vanuatu and the UAE.
“We have completed the first comprehensive revision of the list of countries not cooperating with the EU. Since it was adopted in the end of 2017, this list has proven its value for joint promotion of the agenda of the EU to improve global tax practices, combating tax evasion and enhancing good governance and transparency: more than 30 jurisdictions have already fulfilled their obligation to implement the necessary tax reform,” said Finance Minister presiding in the EU Council of Romania Eugen Teodorovici.
According to Moscovici, thanks to the preparation of the EU list of “tax havens”, dozens of countries refused from the harmful tax regimes and steel to meet international standards of transparency and fair taxation.
“Countries that do not comply with the required criteria, will face appropriate consequences. We raise the bar of good governance in tax matters worldwide and reducing opportunities for tax abuse,” said Moscovici.
As previously reported, in January 2018 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on Wednesday narrowed the list of States that transactions with counterparties are subject to control under the law on transfer pricing, with the exception of Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Malta and Hungary.