Cayman Islands removed from European list of tax havens

Illustrative photo. © Getty Images / Cultura RF

The Cayman Islands and the Sultanate of Oman are removed from the European list of tax havens after adopting the reforms expected of them, European finance ministers decided on Tuesday.

Conversely, the islands of Anguilla and Barbados have been added to this EU list of "non-cooperative for tax purposes" jurisdictions. A peer review published by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Tax Information found them to be "non-compliant" and "partially compliant" with transparency standards, respectively.

The Cayman Islands, on the other hand, were removed from the list after adopting new reforms to collective investment funds last month. As for Oman, the sultanate is considered compliant after having ratified the OECD convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters and adopted several reforms.

As a result of this update, twelve jurisdictions remain on the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions: American Samoa, Anguilla, Barbados, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.