Armenia has been removed from the EU “grey” list of foreign tax havens.
The country was earlier placed on a “grey list” that gives authorities time to introduce legislation to address tax deficiencies identified by Brussels.
The Council of the European Union has adopted revised conclusions on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.
Sixteen jurisdictions (Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cabo Verde, Cook Islands, Curaçao, Marshall Islands, Montenegro, Nauru, Niue, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Vietnam) managed to implement all the necessary reforms to comply with EU tax good governance principles ahead of the agreed deadline and are therefore removed from the “grey list.”
In addition to the 8 jurisdictions that were already listed, the EU has decided to include the following jurisdictions in its blacklist of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions: Cayman Islands, Palau, Panama and Seychelles.
These jurisdictions did not implement the tax reforms to which they had committed by the agreed deadline.
Blacklisted countries face difficulties accessing EU funding programmes, while European companies doing business in those jurisdictions have to take additional compliance measures.
The list, which the EU started in 2017 to put pressure on countries to crack down on tax havens and unfair competition, included 15 countries in 2018 but has shrunk.
