Tax haven

The European Parliament is to create a special new committee on "financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance", it announced Thursday, Reuters.

Switzerland and the United States are the most secretive major financial centers in the world, according to a global ranking compiled by a group campaigning for more transparency, according to Reuters. 

The European Union on Jan. 23 removed eight countries including Panama and South Korea from its new tax haven blacklist after they pledged to address their concerns, the bloc said.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar blames the other EU countries today for hypocrisy over corporate tax, rejecting claims in the European Parliament that Ireland is a tax haven, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.

The United Arab Emirates on Dec. 7 said it was “surprised and disappointed” over its inclusion on a European Union tax haven blacklist.

European Union finance ministers adopted a blacklist of 17 jurisdictions deemed as tax havens on Dec. 5, in an unprecedented step to counter worldwide tax avoidance, although they did not agree on financial levies for the listed countries.

European Union finance ministers adopted on Tuesday a blacklist of tax havens which includes 17 extra-EU jurisdictions seen as not cooperative on tax matters, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.

More than 20 countries can be included in the EU's black list of tax havens, the Financial Times writes.

With the list, the EU will try to tackle aggressive tax evasion. A list of 25 countries is included in the list drawn up by the Code of Conduct Group (Taxation of Undertakings), which includes tax experts from the EU Member States.

The agency said last week that the November 21 draft mentioned Turkey and Serbia as some of the countries that could be added to the list.

But Serbia is now seen as "compliant with EU's demands for additional commitments," the report said, without providing any other information.

The European Union may include Turkey on a blacklist of tax havens as soon as next month, in a move that could further strain ties between Ankara and the world's largest trading bloc.