Eight CARICOM countries among world’s worst tax havens

European Development FundEight CARICOM along with other Caribbean countries are among the 30 non-cooperative tax jurisdictions most commonly listed by EU Member States.

The European Commission published these details in a list on Wednesday. It is based on Member States’ lists as they were communicated to the Commission in December 2014. The Commission will amend this list at least once a year to reflect changes to Member States’ national lists.

The eight CARICOM countries are Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis as well as St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Head of the European Union Delegation to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Mikael Barfod said: “This list is “nothing new” as it is only a compilation of the lists of our Member States. It is part of the Commission’s attempt to develop a common EU wide approach to corporate taxation to ensure its transparency and fairness, when currently Member States have very different definitions even of what constitutes a tax haven”.

All non-cooperative tax jurisdictions identified by Member States are identified on the Commission’s website (see below). The 30 most commonly listed were highlighted in the Action Plan for Fair and Efficient Corporate Taxation in the EU.

The consolidated list is not an assessment by the Commission but a compilation of existing lists of EU Member States which looked at how non-EU countries and territories around the world apply standards of good tax governance. These standards vary, but generally include transparency, exchange of information and fair tax competition.

The consolidated list will allow EU Member States to compare their national lists in an easy and transparent way and can be used to screen non-cooperative tax jurisdictions and develop a common EU strategy to deal with them. As such, it will reinforce Member States’ collective defense systems against tax havens. This “Top 30” of non-cooperative jurisdictions is made up of countries that featured on at least 10 Member States’ lists.

As a next step, the Commission recommends that Member States (within the Code of Conduct Group) should screen the “top 30” listed countries and territories and determine an appropriate EU response. The Code Group’s work has delivered successful results in relation to non-EU countries in the past. For example, Switzerland agreed to eliminate some of its harmful corporate tax regimes following scrutiny by the Code Group.

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23 Comments

  1. Ralph Joseph
    June 19, 2015

    PATRIOTS! WORKER! Here is a valid cause to protest, to riot, to cause uncivil disobedience. Rally your boots on the ground. Storm the government. Bring the UN to its knees. Demand truth to power wrapped in a pack of lies. Remember you are a pack of fearless lions led by jackasses.

  2. June 19, 2015

    There must be some mistake, I am searching for the name of Dominica on the list and it cannot be found. Am I to infer from this blatant omission that the EU is now firmly under the control of the Skeritt Cabal/Criminal Enterprise? :lol: :lol:

    • anonymous2
      June 19, 2015

      You have it backwards.

  3. June 19, 2015

    god is good and all the time god is good

    • Francisco Telemaque
      June 19, 2015

      Are you dunce dumb or what?

      Don’t you know when you write god, in lower case letters, common letters, you are referring to a lower god. If you are talking about the supreme, All Mighty God Jehovah you should always the capital G; as in reference to God!

  4. June 19, 2015

    god is good, and all the time good is good

  5. BLOOD
    June 19, 2015

    so because dominica name not on that list dominican doing well?? That is bull. That country has nothing to generate it income but tax tax tax. lack of jobs nothing to do. No factories country running on tax tax tax. You stupid labourites most of you dont even have a job. Go arround the country ans ask most of the people if they they have a sustainable job. wicked set of people in that country.

  6. Tourism Specialist
    June 19, 2015

    only reason Dominica isn’t included is no one visits the island

    • joe
      June 19, 2015

      Tourist Specialist you are a direct example of how FOOLISH you people has become!!!!!!!!! What visitors have to do with tax compliance?? SMDFH!!!!!!!!

      • Titiwi
        June 19, 2015

        Joe please, this blogger has a point. It is much easier to visit the other islands and that affects not only our off-shore business but general development too. Go and ask Invest Dominica how many genuine investors they have calling these days?
        I am not talking about the Citzizenship by Investment here because we have not seen any real results from that yet and even there we are competing with a number of our neighbours, fellow OECS members.

  7. Felix AAron
    June 19, 2015

    No comment Q95 Cabal?

  8. joe
    June 19, 2015

    A . A where are the bloggers?? DNO is it because this news is good for Dominica?? Where are the so call PATRIOTS??

    I TELL YOU DOMINICA NICE BOY!!!!!!! IF WE WERE LISTED THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN 2,000 COMMENTS ALREADY……..

    Well to all the HATERZ OF SKERRIT AND DOMINICA BY EXTENSION WE ARE DOING GREAT IN THE EYES OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORLD SO GO EAT YOUR HEART OUT!!!!!! SMDFH

  9. smh
    June 19, 2015

    If Dominica was on that list this article would have 100 comments by now about how Skerrit killing d country.

  10. Malgraysa
    June 19, 2015

    I think the headline is definitely subject o interpretation. These tax havens may be the worst for the E.U. authorities but the best for people who want to avoid paying tax. As the saying goes ” it depends on which side of the fence you are”!

    • joe
      June 19, 2015

      I bet if Dominica was on that list your comment would have been much much more different, WICKED SOUL!!!!!!

  11. playboy
    June 19, 2015

    I believe it was 13 countries that were reported from another credible news organization this morning , including Cayman, Anguilla, and others.

  12. civil servaht
    June 19, 2015

    Eh Eh that is not correct!! Dominica not on that list?? Thomson Fontaine what you have t say about this??

    • Titiwi
      June 19, 2015

      Civil servant, maybe Dominica isn’t even competitive in that field?

  13. Jejep
    June 18, 2015

    Funny that there hasn’t been any comments.

  14. anonymous2
    June 18, 2015

    The EU is a bad situation. Britain is trying to get out of it as it never voted to be in it. Most of Europe wants out. Many countries were forced into it. It is part of the global govt. scheme. What they are saying here is a lie. They have a lot of off shore money in these islands, especially Nevis with all of its’ Trust buildings. They are saying the opposite of what they are actually doing to throw the public off tract..

  15. Tor
    June 18, 2015

    The European Commission’s approach to classify tax-heavens is hypocritical as usual and its another demonstration of how big countries bully tiny nations. The idea is that such places like Niue with population of 1400 people or Anguilla or Montserrat can be in a top list of jurisdictions which are used to evade taxes is ridiculous. As we all know in 2012 Google avoided paying 2 billion USD corporate tax in the United States shifting its profit via Netherlands, Ireland and Bermuda structures. Starbucks avoided paying profit tax in the UK for 14 years using loopholes in the law and aggressive tax planning schemes http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-23019514 .. same story with Apple and many other global corporations.
    Lets be honest: majority of tax evasion on global scale is going on in Luxembourg, Ireland, Netherlands, United States (Delaware), Switzerland … but for certain political reason these countries are not included in the list. Catch-22 situation…

    • June 21, 2015

      I don’t know why this has so many down votes. Tor is exactly right that these tax haven complaints on the part of wealthy countries are nothing more than economic colonialism. You can see it in the way they refer to such countries as “non-cooperative”. These wealthy countries are a tax cartel, and economically developing countries that are trying to compete in the financial services market should tell them to shove off.

  16. Me Alone
    June 18, 2015

    Glad that Dominica is not on that List, this means that something positive is happening here in respect to Tax Matters.

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