PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenia has been removed from the EU 'grey list' of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, according to a decision approved by the Council of the European Union.

The EU 'blacklist' of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions includes overseas tax territories that do not effectively co-operate with the EU. Countries on the 'grey list', meanwhile, are qualified as tax havens and have promised reforms.

The Council on Tuesday, February 18 adopted revised conclusions on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.

Joining Armenia in the list of jurisdictions that managed to implement all the necessary reforms to comply with EU tax good governance principles were Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cabo Verde, Cook Islands, Curaçao, Marshall Islands, Montenegro, Nauru, Niue, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Vietnam.

In addition to the 8 jurisdictions that were already blacklisted, the EU also decided to include the following jurisdictions in its list of non- cooperative tax jurisdictions: Cayman Islands, Palau, Panama, and Seychelles.

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.