Common EU List of Third Country Jurisdictions for Tax Purposes
The first ever EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions was agreed by Member States on 5 December 2017.
This list is part of the EU’s work to fight tax evasion and avoidance and aims to create a stronger deterrent for countries that consistently refuse to play fair on tax matters.
Press Release / Q&A sheet (situation on 18 February 2020)
FactsheetSearch for available translations of the preceding link (situation on 5 December 2017)
Fact-sheet, showing the evolution of the list
Objectives of the EU List
The overall goal of the EU list is to improve tax good governance globally, and to ensure that the EU’s international partners respect the same standards as EU Member States do.
The listing process
The list is a result of a thorough screening and dialogue process with non-EU countries, to assess them against agreed criteria for good governance.
These criteria relate to tax transparency, fair taxation, the implementation of OECD BEPS measures and substance requirements for zero-tax countries.
The criteria were agreed by Member States at the November 2016 ECOFIN and used as the basis for a screening “scoreboard”.
The EU-List
The countries in the list below are those that refused to engage with the EU or to address tax good governance shortcomings (situation on 7 November of 2019).
- American Samoa
- Cayman Islands
- Fiji
- Guam
- Oman
- Palau
- Panama
- Samoa
- Seychelles
- Trinidad and Tobago
- US Virgin Islands
- Vanuatu
The EU listing process also had a very positive impact as most jurisdictions engaged constructively with the EU during the listing process.
Many made concrete, high level commitments to improve their standards, as a result of the EU screening exercise.
This is the major achievement of the EU list process.
EU Member States will continue to monitor the situation, to ensure that jurisdictions implement their commitments.
Listed jurisdictions will be removed from the list once they have addressed EU concerns.
Related links
Detailed explanation of the methodologySearch for available translations of the preceding link and the scoreboard
External Strategy for Effective Taxation
EU anti-tax avoidance requirements on financing and investment operations
Source: ec.europa.eu
Published: 18 February 2020
