Tax havens

Panama’s parliament passed a bill on Monday (11th February) that elevates tax evasion to a criminal offense, in a move the goverment hopes will enable the country to stay on […]

The Council of the European Union announced Tuesday that the EU has amended its blacklist of jurisdictions that it deems uncooperative in tax matters, removing eight jurisdictions from that list.

EU finance ministers removed eight ‘entities’ – countries and territories – from the tax havens blacklist, while ruling out more transparency or sanctions.

European Union officials have proposed removing eight jurisdictions from the blacklist of tax havens the bloc adopted in December, in what critics may see as a blow to its campaign against tax avoidance. EU states decided last month to draw up the list in a bid to discourage the most aggressive tax dodging practices.

The EU has named and shamed 17 states in publishing the bloc’s first ever tax haven blacklist and put a further 47 states on notice, including four British overseas territories and crown dependencies. The decision was made at a meeting of finance ministers in Brussels as EU authorities move to counter tax avoidance and evasion – having urged dozens of nations to make greater commitments to transparency over the past year.

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.

In the wake of the leak of the “Paradise Papers”, two human rights experts from the United Nations are urging Caribbean and other states to take action against corporate tax fraud. The Paradise Papers are a set of confidential documents related to offshore investment.

The Paradise Papers have revealed that the prestigious British universities have committed significant sums to a hedge fund scheme related to investments in fossil fuels. The revelations are likely to increase pressure on both institutions over their investment policies. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge invested millions of pounds in offshore funds, according to revelations contained in the Paradise Papers.

European Union states will on Tuesday bring forward a discussion on plans for a tax havens’ blacklists after newly leaked documents revealed investments by wealthy individuals and institutions around the globe, officials said.

The subject’s inclusion on the monthly meeting’s agenda of EU finance ministers came after weekend media reports citing the "Paradise Papers", a trove of financial documents leaked mostly from Appleby, a prominent offshore law firm. EU finance ministers meeting for regular talks in Brussels will discuss tax avoidance on Tuesday after a trove of leaked documents exposed the great lengths to which the global elite will go to avert paying a fair tax.