EU to remove Seychelles from tax haven blacklist - documents BRUSSELS Reuters - The Finance Ministers of the Union are set to remove Seychelles, Dominica and Anguilla from the bloc's blacklist of tax havens next week, documents seen by Reuters indicate, while Panama has failed in its demand for nod
The list was created in 2017 to combat widespread tax evasion and tax avoidance, and has been updated regularly to add jurisdictions or remove jurisdictions depending on their tax reforms.
EU tax experts have recommended the delisting of the Caribbean island of Dominica, the British Caribbean territory of Anguilla and the Seychelles, mostly because they have committed to undergo a supplementary review of their tax systems with the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, the leading international body for tax evasion, the documents show.
The three jurisdictions are expected to be moved to the EU's grey list of countries with commitment to fiscal reforms pending the outcome of such supplementary review one EU document says.
The decision requires approval from EU Finance Ministers at a meeting on Oct. 5 in Brussels. They usually rubber stamp tax recommendations, but in this case a member state expresses a reservation about one of the affected jurisdictions, one of the EU documents says, without elaborating.
The Seychelles has been widely described as a tax haven for its very favorable tax treatment of offshore companies.
However, EU experts recommend its delisting following the resolution of the issue regarding harmful preferential tax regimes the document says.
Panama wrote to the EU asking to be removed from the blacklist, but regrettably lacking a commitment to repeal or amend their harmful FSIE regime one EU document says. A Foreign-Source Income Exemption regime or FSIE exempts some foreign income from tax.
The draft conclusion of the upcoming Finance Ministers' meeting says Panama has not resolved this issue yet countries that are blacklisted are subject to stricter controls on transactions with the EU.
Under the proposals seen by Reuters, no country will be added to the blacklist, and Turkey will remain on the grey list as it continues to oppose automatic exchange of tax information with EU member Cyprus.
If all the proposed changes are approved, the updated Blacklist will include nine jurisdictions: American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.