Oxfam urges EU for a tax haven list

In a report published on Tuesday, Oxfam has assessed the tax collecting credentials of the 92 countries currently being assessed by the EU, as well as all 28 EU member states, which are not part of the EU's review. Claiming to use the same criteria as the EU, namely the examination of countries' tax transparency systems and tax rates, the Oxfam report claims that a proper blacklist would have four EU member states — Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands — on it.

Out of the 92 non-EU countries and territories being assessed, Oxfam believes 35 of them should be included on the final EU blacklist. Among that number are several European countries, such as Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Switzerland and Serbia.

It also includes Gibraltar, a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula which is in fact, in the EU. The report, titled 'Blacklist or Whitewash?', says that if the EU is to be consistent, it needs to include some of its own member states on the list but that the charity fears "political pressure will lead to a dilution of the criteria and thus to a useless list."

"We expect the countries identified by us to appear on the actual list,” said Tobias Hauschild, one of Oxfam's tax experts. "Anything else would be a free pass to continue the selfish and socially harmful business model of 'tax havens' and to further fuel the ruinous international tax race to the bottom. The G20 have just one country on their tax haven list – the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Such a farce must not be allowed by the EU."   

As well as being critical of the EU's decision to exclude its own member states from assessment, Oxfam is especially critical of the policies of Bermuda, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. Its report also calls for heavy sanctions and punitive measures against any countries named on the final blacklist.

There remains the possibility that any blacklist would merely be an instrument for embarrassing countries deemed to be tax havens, as much offshore activity is technically legal.

Earlier this month, Pierre Moscovici, the EU finance commissioner, demanded member states come up with a credible list following the Appleby revelations of widespread tax avoidance and evasion by some of the world's most powerful people.

"There is no point in just having one country on the black list of tax havens," he said at the time. The comment was largely directed towards the OECD, a Paris-based club of advanced economies, which, in July, designated Trinidad and Tobago as the world's only non-cooperative jurisdiction on tax transparency.