The Diplomat
The Official State Gazette (BOE) yesterday published the order of the Ministry of Finance and Public Function in which it updates the list of territories that Spain considers tax havens, including Gibraltar.
The order updates the list of tax havens, which now totals 24, compared to the 48 that appeared more than 30 years ago. These are countries and territories, as well as harmful tax regimes, which are considered tax havens according to the new international concept of non-cooperative jurisdiction.
Thus, the following countries and territories, as well as the following harmful tax regimes, are considered as non-cooperative jurisdictions: Anguilla, Bahrain, Barbados, Bermuda, Dominica, Fiji, Gibraltar, Guam, Guernsey, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Isle of Man, Falkland Islands, Cayman Islands, Mariana Islands, Jersey, Palau, Samoa, in respect of the ‘offshore business’ harmful tax regime, American Samoa, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Vanuatu and United States Virgin Islands.
In order to combat tax fraud more efficiently, the Anti-Fraud Law extended the concept of ‘tax haven’, bringing it into line with the international concept of a non-cooperative jurisdiction, and set new factors to be taken into account.
This involves updating the criteria for determining which countries and territories are considered to be non-cooperative jurisdictions, in line with the work carried out in the international sphere, both within the framework of the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Thus, the Law requires that not only transparency criteria be taken into account, but also tax fairness criteria, identifying those countries and territories characterised by facilitating the existence of offshore companies aimed at attracting profits without real economic activity or by the existence of low or zero taxation, or for their opacity and lack of transparency, for the lack of regulations with that country on the exchange of tax information, for the absence of an effective exchange of information with Spain or for the results of the evaluations carried out by the Global Forum on the effectiveness of information exchanges with those countries and territories.
These criteria, assessed jointly, are what allow the current list of countries and territories, provided for in Royal Decree 1080/1991, to be updated.
This list, published more than 30 years ago, initially included 48 territories, although over the years it has been reduced as specific information exchange agreements or agreements to avoid double taxation with an information exchange clause have been signed.
The list published yesterday in the BOE will be reviewed in the light of international updates and national developments and advances.
