Tax havens: ECOFIN, Russia blacklisted

The EU Council of Economics and Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) has included Russia into the list of tax havens, the Council announced in a statement. Ministers added Russia, the British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, and Marshall Islands to the EU list of “non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes”. The list contains 16 jurisdictions, including American Samoa, Anguilla, Bahamas, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands, and Vanuatu. The Code of Conduct Group added Russia to the list after screening Russia’s new legislation adopted in 2022 against the good tax governance criteria, having found that “Russia had not fulfilled its commitment to address the harmful aspects of a special regime for international holding companies”. In addition, dialogue with Russia came to a standstill following Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. “We ask all listed countries to improve their legal framework and to work towards compliance with international standards in taxation. I warmly congratulate North Macedonia, Barbados, Jamaica and Uruguay as they successfully fulfilled their commitments and could be removed from the state of play document”, said Sweden’s Minister for Finance, Elisabeth Svantesson, who is currently holding the six-month EU Presidency. The EU list includes “countries that either have not engaged in a constructive dialogue with the EU on tax governance or have failed to deliver on their commitments to implement the necessary reforms” to comply with “a set of objective tax good governance criteria, which include tax transparency, fair taxation and implementation of international standards designed to prevent tax base erosion and profit shifting”.
Irene Giuntella