From Jamaica Gleaner

BRUSSELS, May 25, CMC – The Council of the European Union (EU) on Friday announced the removal of The Bahamas and St. Kitts Nevis from the EU’s list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions.

“Having fewer jurisdictions on the list is a measure of the success of the listing process”, said Vladislav Goranov, Minister for Finance of Bulgaria, which currently holds the Council presidency.

“As jurisdictions around the world work to reform their tax policies, our challenge for the rest of the year will be to see that their commitments have been correctly implemented.”

In a statement, the Council said both countries have made commitments at a high political level to remedy EU concerns and that EU experts have assessed those commitments.

“As a consequence, the two jurisdictions are moved from Annex I of the conclusions to Annex II, which cites jurisdictions that have undertaken sufficient commitments to reform their tax policies.”

The Council said the implementation of the commitments made by both countries will be carefully monitored by the working group responsible for the listing process.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council, without discussion.

The EU’s list  – established in December 2017, contributes to on-going efforts to prevent tax fraud and promote good governance worldwide.

The list is contained in Annex I of conclusions adopted by the Council in December 2017.

So far, the jurisdictions remaining on the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions are – American Samoa, Guam, Namibia, Palau, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago and the US Virgin Islands.

The Council said the list is revised at least once a year,  however, the code of conduct group can recommend an update at any time.

For more on this story go to: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/caribbean/20180525/bahamas-and-st-kitts-nevis-removed-eu-tax-list