The EU Council revised its list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes on 17 October 2023 and as result, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) has been removed from its list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes as it has amended its framework on exchange of information on request and other 4 countries have been included namely Belize, Seychelles, Antigua and Barbuda.

With these additions, the EU list now consists of 16 jurisdictions including Russia, which remains on the list from 14 February 2023.

With these updates, the EU list consists of the following 16 jurisdictions:

• American Samoa
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Anguilla
• Bahamas
• Belize
• Fiji
• Guam
• Palau
• Panama
• Russia
• Samoa
• Seychelles
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Turks and Caicos Islands
• US Virgin Islands
• Vanuatu

Changes to the list

This EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions (Annex I) includes countries that either have not engaged in a constructive dialogue with the EU on tax governance or have failed to deliver on their commitments to implement the necessary reforms. Those reforms should aim to comply with a set of objective tax good governance criteria, which include tax transparency, fair taxation and implementation of international standards designed to prevent tax base erosion and profit shifting.

For more information on the EU Council decision, please click here.

The important effects arising from the inclusion in the above European list is that any dividend, interest and royalty payments made to corporate taxpayers located in such jurisdictions from a Cyprus tax resident payer is subject to 17%, 30% and 10% withholding tax, respectively.

Additionally invoicing to or borrowing from black listed companies may trigger reporting under DAC6.

Should you have any enquiries, Globalserve Consultants Ltd is at your disposal for further clarification.