Saturday, April 4, 2009

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.



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



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 *



Black List
Costa Rica
Malaysia (Labuan)

Philippines
Uruguay




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.

1 comment:

Parag said...

I am seriously hoping that the countries who have committed to these changes will actually do it. Its high time that international agencies have had them under check.
List of tax haven countries

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