On February 18, 2020, the Council of the European Union added four new jurisdictions to the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions ("EU Blacklist").
The Cayman Islands, Palau, and Seychelles moved from the grey list to the blacklist. Panama was added to the blacklist.
Armenia, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bermuda, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cape Verde, Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, Montenegro, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Vietnam have been fully removed from the list by the Council.
The EU Blacklist now includes:
- American Samoa
- Cayman Islands
- Fiji
- Guam
- Oman
- Palau
- Panama
- Samoa
- Trinidad and Tobago
- U.S. Virgin Islands
- Vanuatu
- Seychelles
According to the Council of the European Union, the Cayman Islands lacks appropriate measures regarding economic substance in the area of collective investment vehicles.
Palau does not conduct any automatic exchange of financial information, has not signed the revised OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, and these issues remain unresolved.
Panama's rating at the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes is required to be at least "largely compliant", but this issue remains unresolved.
Seychelles implements a harmful preferential tax regime, and these issues remain unresolved.
