OECD Tax Havens List

Updated 8 Apr 2009: Black List strike through. Countries agreed to conform to the standard

OECD has finally released the list of countries that comply with the internationally agreed tax standard, also otherwise known as the Tax Havens List as every country is only interested in the black list.

The internationally agreed tax standard, which was developed by the OECD in co-operation with non-OECD countries and which was endorsed by G20 Finance Ministers at their Berlin Meeting in 2004 and by the UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters at its October 2008 Meeting, requires exchange of information on request in all tax matters for the administration and enforcement of domestic tax law without regard to a domestic tax interest requirement or bank secrecy for tax purposes. It also provides for extensive safeguards to protect the confidentiality of the information exchanged.

OECD has finally came out with rules on what is a internationally agreed tax standard. I think before this, there are no such concrete rules, which makes the white/black list quite controversial. Now countries will be scrambling to comply with the rules.

I went to do a little digging for the complete list. Seems like OECD has split it into a white list, grey list and black list.

White list contains the countries that have substantially implemented the internationally agreed tax standard.

Grey list contains the countries that are committed to the agreement, but has yet to substantially implemented it.

Black list contains the countries that have not yet committed to the agreement.

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White List
Argentina Australia Barbados Canada China Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Finland France	Germany Greece Guernsey Hungary Iceland Ireland Isle of Man Italy Japan Jersey	Korea Malta Mauritius Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Poland Portugal Russian Federation	Seychelles Slovak Republic South Africa Spain Sweden Turkey United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States US Virgin Islands

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Grey List
List identified in year 2000, based on 1998 OECD report
Andorra Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Aruba Bahamas Bahrain Belize Bermuda British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Cook Islands Dominica Gibraltar Grenada Liberia Liechtenstein	Marshall Islands Monaco Montserrat Nauru Neth. Antilles Niue Panama St Kitts and Nevis St Lucia St Vincent & Grenadines Samoa San Marino Turks and Caicos Islands Vanuatu
Others
Austria Belgium Brunei Chile Costa Rica * Guatemala	Luxembourg Malaysia (Labuan) * Philippines * Singapore Switzerland Uruguay *

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Black List
Costa Rica Malaysia (Labuan)	Philippines Uruguay

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Some of the foot notes include:

• Although China is in the white list, the Special Administrative Regions (SAR) are excluded. The SARS have committed to implement the internationally agreed tax standard. Translated, Hong Kong and Macau is on the grey list.
  
  
• The Cayman Islands has enacted legislation that allows it to exchange information unilaterally and has identified 12 countries with which it is prepared to do so. This legislation is being reviewed by the OECD.
  
  
• Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland withdrew their reservations to Article 26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention. Belgium has already written to 48 countries to propose the conclusion of protocols to update Article 26 of their existing treaties. Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland announced that they have started to write to their treaty partners to indicate that they are now willing to enter into renegotiations of their treaties to include the new Article 26.
  
  
• * indicates the countries moved from the black list to the grey list as they have agreed to conform to the standards.