European Commission drops Guernsey from EU tax blacklist

After a meeting held in Brussels between the European Union officials, the European Commission issued a blacklist naming 30 non-cooperative jurisdictions. The commission has removed Guernsey from the blacklist and has endorsed Guernsey as a ‘cooperative jurisdiction’.

Jonathan Le Tocq, Guernsey’s chief minister welcomed the news and said; “This recognizes not only Guernsey’s adherence to the OECD and Global Forum international standards on transparency and information exchange, but also that our corporate tax regime has been assessed as compliant with the EU’s Code of Conduct on Corporate Taxation, and hence not containing harmful measures,”

In the mid of June, the European Commission issued a list of 30 non-cooperative tax jurisdictions based on their compliance with information exchange standards. The list included Cayman Islands, Mauritius and Hong Kong.

It is important to note here that the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) criticized the list and argued that the commission failed to produce transparent and consistent methodology when calculating which countries where so-called ‘tax havens’.

According to the chief executive of Guernsey Finance, Dominic Wheatley; Guernsey is an important business partner for the EU, therefore Guernsey’s contribution to the EU should not be overlooked. He also added that this move “should give full confidence to all those looking to do business in Guernsey”.