No Surprise: European Union Keeps Panama on Its List of Tax Havens

The Twenty-Seven agreed on Tuesday, October 8, to remove Antigua and Barbuda from their “black” list of tax havens, a decision that reduces the list to eleven jurisdictions that the European Union (EU) considers non-cooperative for tax purposes and among which Panama remains included despite the fact that the European Commission removed it from the list of third world countries that pose a high risk to the EU financial system. 

The EU list includes countries that have not engaged in a constructive dialogue on tax governance or have not fulfilled their commitments to implement the necessary reforms and that must aim to meet a set of objective criteria of good tax governance, such as transparency, fair taxation or the implementation of international standards designed to prevent base erosion and profit shifting.

With the changes introduced on Tuesday, the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes is reduced to eleven members: Anguilla, Fiji, Guam, Palau, US Virgin Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Panama, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu.  During a meeting with the board of directors of the Council of the Americas on September 23, President José Raúl Mulino explained that he had made the decision that countries that keep the country on these lists will not be able to do business with Panama. Let me add a note that I would have said, that the President did not say. “It’s your loss. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”