The European Commission proceeds with plans to draw up the first common EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions by presenting a pre-assessment of all third countries according to key indicators.
On 15 September 2016, the Commission released a draft list of countries suspected of facilitating tax avoidance. This list was compiled based on a range of indicators including economic data, financial activity, institutional and legal structure and basic tax good governance standards.
It is now up to Member States to determine which jurisdictions are to be selected for closer scrutiny from January 2017, with the aim of publishing the first EU list on non-cooperative tax jurisdictions before the end of 2017.
The Commission says this common list should carry much more weight than the current patchwork of national lists and prevent aggressive tax planners from abusing mismatches between the different national systems.
