Notorious tax havens escape EU blacklist

European finance ministers look set to avoid blacklisting nine of the world's worst tax havens when they publish their first review of the EU's tax haven blacklist.

Oxfam's new report 'Off the Hook' shows that the EU is likely to remove the Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Jersey and Panama from the blacklist. Some of these countries were at the center of the recent tax scandals revealed in the Paradise Leaks and the Panama Papers. The report also shows that EU countries Cyprus, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands would have been blacklisted if EU Member States were not automatically exempt.

Multinational companies shifted $600 billion (€526 billion) in profits to tax havens in 2015, a third of which went to tax havens in the EU. This deprives rich and poor countries alike of the money they need to invest in poverty- and inequality-reducing public services such as healthcare and education. Women and girls are the hardest hit when governments cut such investments.

"The EU was brave enough to establish the blacklist of tax havens to stop tax evasion. But it seems they have lost their nerve. European governments seem to be whitewashing some of the world's worst tax havens. The EU published the blacklist of tax havens in December 2017. It now includes five small island nations, while 63 countries that pledged to reform their tax policies were put on a "gray list."

Johan Langerock, Tax Advisor Oxfam

However, Oxfam's analysis shows that 18 of these countries should be blacklisted as they have not sufficiently reformed. Oxfam calls on EU governments to strengthen their blacklisting criteria, to ensure that the review process is free from political influence and to ensure that the 'gray-listed' countries reform their tax systems.