At a recent meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN), Aruba, Barbados and Bermuda were removed from the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions. The EU list was established in December 2017 and is part of the EU’s efforts to prevent tax avoidance and promote tax transparency.

Barbados has made commitments at a high political level to remedy EU concerns regarding the replacement of its harmful preferential regimes by a measure of similar effect, whilst Aruba and Bermuda have now implemented their commitments. Bermuda remains committed to address EU concerns in the area of collective investment funds. As a consequence, Barbados and Bermuda will be moved from Annex I of the conclusions to Annex II, which includes jurisdictions that have undertaken sufficient commitments to reform their tax policies, while Aruba will be removed entirely from both Annexes.

Twelve jurisdictions remain on the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions: American Samoa, Belize, Dominica, Fiji, Guam, Marshall Islands, Oman, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates, US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu. More details are provided in ECOFIN’s press release.