EU drops Antigua and Barbuda from tax blacklist

The Council of the European Union has removed Antigua and Barbuda from its blacklist of non-cooperation jurisdictions on global tax standards, the EU's Economic and Financial Affairs Council said on 8 October. 

With these updates, the list now consists of 11 jurisdictions, namely American Samoa, Anguilla, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Russia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.

The Council said it "regrets that these jurisdictions are not yet cooperative on tax matters and invites them to improve their legal framework in order to resolve the identified issues".

Antigua and Barbuda was included in the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes in October 2023, after a negative assessment from the OECD Global Forum with regard to exchange of information on request.

Following changes to the applicable rules in Antigua and Barbuda, the Global Forum granted it a supplementary review, which will be undertaken in the near future.

Pending the outcome of this review, Antigua and Barbuda has been included in the relevant section of Annex II.

In addition, two jurisdictions that have been listed for an extended period of time, namely Fiji and Palau, have made promising steps towards compliance with the listing criteria, and this has been reflected in their entries in the list.