By Youri Kemp From Caribbean News Now

BRUSSELS, Belgium — A decision by European Union tax experts to blacklist St Kitts and Nevis, The Bahamas and US Virgin Islands is set to be endorsed by EU finance ministers at a regular monthly meeting next Tuesday. The 28-member EU bloc is also expected to delist Bahrain, the Marshall Islands and Saint Lucia.

Earlier this month, during a European Parliamentary debate session, Members of Parliament for Europe (MEPs) questioned EU finance ministers over their removal of several countries from the tax haven blacklist in January.

During the EU parliament debate it was decided to set up new committees to build on the work of TAXE 1 and 2 and the PANA inquiries to support the efforts of the TAXE 3

The TAXE 3, agreed upon by the EU Parliament’s ‘conference of presidents’, is an initiative stated to have a 12-month mandate. The initiative was started immediately upon ratification by the EU Parliament with the explicit intent of investigating financial crimes, tax evasion and avoidance.

The other six remaining EU blacklisted countries are American Samoa, Guam, Namibia, Palau, Samoa and Trinidad and Tobago that will now be in addition to St Kitts and Nevis, The Bahamas and US Virgin Islands.

The EU has made a distinction between tax avoidance and tax evasion with:

• Tax avoidance meaning the use legal instruments in order to pay as little tax as possible, for example by shifting profits to a low-tax country or deducting interest payments for loans with artificially-inflated interest rates. The EU’s anti-tax avoidance directive comes into force in January 2019; and
• Tax evasion or tax fraud meaning the use of illegal practices to avoid paying taxes, for example by not declaring profits or using various ways to avoid paying VAT.

No EU countries were screened or investigated under these latest provisions on the premise that they were already in line with EU standards against tax avoidance.

For more on this story go to: http://wp.caribbeannewsnow.com/2018/03/09/st-kitts-nevis-bahamas-and-usvi-set-to-be-blacklisted-by-eu/