The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is to be put on an EU blacklist of tax havens, less than two weeks after the UK’s withdrawal from the bloc.
Last year the UK and its “corporate tax haven network” was judged to be by far the world’s greatest enabler of corporate tax avoidance by the Tax Justice Network.
British territories and dependencies made up four of the 10 places said to have done the most to “proliferate corporate tax avoidance” on the corporate tax haven index.
The status of the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands had been up for review since being placed on a “grey list” in 2018.
The EU had concerns the tax regimes of these territories facilitated offshore structures that attracted profits without real economic activity.
Miles Dean, head of international tax at Andersen Tax UK, said: “The Cayman Islands already has legislation to obtain information that is far better than the UK’s.
The Financial Times reported that Turkey, which is currently on the “grey” list, will not be moved to the blacklist. »