EU to remove Armenia from tax haven "grey list" – Financial Times

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Union is expected to remove Armenia from the "grey list" of foreign tax havens, Financial Times reports.

The EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions – or the "blacklist" – currently includes eight overseas tax territories that do not effectively co-operate with the EU. The "grey list" of countries, meanwhile, are qualified as tax havens and have promised reforms.

The EU first set up its list of tax havens in 2017 in an attempt to put pressure on countries to crack down on tax havens and unfair competition. Blacklisted countries face difficulties accessing EU funding programmes and European companies doing business in those jurisdictions have to take additional compliance measures.

The European Commission said in March 2019 that Armenia was among the 34 jurisdictions that have already taken many positive steps to comply with the requirements under the EU listing process, but should complete this work by the end of 2019 to avoid being blacklisted in 2020.

EU27 ambassadors on Wednesday, February 12 took a decision to place the Cayman Islands – an autonomous British Overseas Territory – on a the list foreign tax havens.

Officials said that Turkey, which is currently on the “grey” list, would not be moved to the blacklist despite concerns about its information sharing with some EU member states. The Bahamas will also be removed.