The Council of the European Union has expanded its "blacklist" of countries that do not cooperate in tax information exchange. The latest additions are Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Vanuatu, Dominica, Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
The criteria designed by the European Commission for a tax haven: transparency of tax jurisdiction, efficiency of administration and real economic activity with a zero corporate tax rate.
If the offshore jurisdictions undertake measures to realize the imposed obligations and make considerable progress in doing business within the range of the EU criteria, they will be removed from the blacklist. Countries on the list are subject to financial and investment control by EU countries. The European Union's „gray list“ of countries on the verge of making it onto the blacklist includes 34 states.
Concurrently, the Federal Tax Service of Russia has reduced the number of countries on it's own blacklist.
