The European Union maintains two lists of suspicious tax jurisdictions. The first, which is also called “black”, includes countries that do not cooperate on tax issues.
The “gray” list includes countries that “are considered to cooperate on tax issues, provided that they successfully fulfill their obligations.”
The new version of the “gray” list is to be approved by EU ministers on 24 February.
The current gray list includes the following jurisdictions: Anguilla, Barbados, Botswana, Costa Rica, Dominica, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Jordan, Malaysia, North Macedonia, Qatar, Seychelles, Thailand, Turkey and Uruguay. According to Brussels, they are not yet fully compliant with international tax standards, but have made sufficient commitments to implement them.
The “black” list of offshore companies was created on the basis of the 4th EU directive against money laundering, adopted in 2015. States and territories from the offshore blacklist are subject to stricter control over transactions with the European Union.
Blacklisted jurisdictions can be removed from the blacklist if they commit to reform and change rules that promote tax evasion. In this case, they go to the so-called “gray” list of the EU.
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