The EU eliminates Antigua and Barbuda, a Caribbean country, from its catalog of tax havens
Antigua and Barbuda, a Caribbean island nation, is no longer deemed a tax haven by the EU. On Tuesday, EU finance ministers took the country off their list of uncooperative tax havens. Currently, the EU's list of non-cooperative jurisdictions consists of eleven countries and territories.
At the beginning of the year, the finance ministers had already reduced the list by incorporating the Bahamas and the Seychelles. Other tax havens still present on the list include Fiji Islands, Panama, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Last year, the EU also incorporated Russia due to insufficient cooperation in tax matters, following Russia's attack on Ukraine in the spring of 2022.
"The blacklist of tax havens is a laughable farce," condemned Martin Schirdewan, a European parliamentarian from The Left. "The hotspots of tax evasion, from the Cayman Islands to Switzerland, are not listed." Instead, "symbolically," a brief list of countries with minimal impact on combating tax evasion is highlighted.
The EU revises its list every six months. It was established towards the end of 2017 following a series of significant international financial scandals, including the Panama Papers and LuxLeaks, which exposed questionable tax practices by corporations and wealthy private investors. Being listed can result in the freezing of assets in the EU.
One reason why Martin Schirdewan criticizes the EU's list of uncooperative tax havens is because it fails to include major tax evasion hotspots like the Cayman Islands and Switzerland. Despite being deemed uncooperative by many, One country that was removed from the list recently is Antigua and Barbuda.
