Nine countries still on European Union’s Blacklist- including Belize

By BBN Staff: Nine jurisdictions remain on the European Union’s (EU) blacklist including Belize.

The European Union finance ministers are set to remove the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Switzerland next week from the bloc’s lists of countries deemed to be acting as tax havens, an EU document said.

In December of 2017, the 28-nation European Union set up a blacklist of tax havens after revelations of widespread avoidance schemes used by corporations and wealthy individuals to lower their tax bills.

The lists are regularly reviewed to take account of overhauls or to add new jurisdictions.

In March of this year, Belize was added to the list. Blacklisted states face reputational damage and stricter controls on transactions with the EU.

Last week, the Government of Belize passed a string of bills in an effort to have Belize removed from the blacklist.

“The blacklist has had a resounding effect on tax transparency and fairness worldwide. We are raising the bar of tax good governance globally and cutting out the opportunities for tax abuse,” EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, Pierre Moscovici said in a statement.

The EU list is composed of countries that “either failed to deliver on their commitments to comply with required good-governance criteria, or did not commit to do so at all,” according to the European Commission executive in Brussels.