Similarly, the Government of Hong Kong said it was “puzzled” by its inclusion on the list, adding that few of the EU states which have featured the city-state had yet negotiated tax agreements.
“Hong Kong was denied any opportunity to comment on or clarify its position before the proposed blacklisting, which was unilateral and procedurally unfair,” it said. “Hong Kong is one of the members of the Global Forum on Transparency & Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, and its commitment to meeting international standards on tax transparency was recognised in a two-phase peer review, completed in 2011 and 2013, by the Global Forum.”
Astonishment
Last week, Guernsey said it was “astonished” at its inclusion, arguing that it only officially appears on nine blacklists.
“The Commission appears to have hurriedly put together a list of so-called ‘non-cooperative’ non-EU jurisdictions using some very arbitrary criteria,” said Guernsey Finance, the representative body for Guernsey’s financial industry.
The list comes as part of the Commission’s plan to reform corporate taxation in the EU, in which it sets out a series of initiatives to tackle tax avoidance, secure sustainable revenues, and strengthen the single market for businesses.
The full list is as follows: Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Grenada, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Monaco, Montserrat, Nauru, Niue, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Seychelles, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands, Vanuatu.
