OECD releases list of tax havens

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Friday released an updated list of countries it deems tax havens.

Among the surprises on the list was Luxembourg which had said it was working to improve the transparency of its banking sector, the Financial Times notes. 

It along with Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands and the Seychelles was viewed an “non-compliant” with global tax norms even though they have put needed legislation on the books.

{mosads}The OECD list was released at the annual meeting of its tax transparency global forum, being held in Jakarta. 

An additional 14 countries including Switzerland were on an even lower list of countries who have not even started to put global norms into place for evaluation. Also that list are Botswana, Nauru, Brunei, Niue, Dominica, Panama, Guatemala, Lebanon, Trinidad and Tobago, Liberia, United Arab Emirates, Marshall Islands and Vanuatu.

The U.S. has a free trade agreement with Panama and the nation was supposed to improve its tax haven status as part of the FTA deal. The U.S. is negotiating a trade deal with Brunei as part of the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) talks.

The OECD list comes in the same week as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) released a discussion draft for international tax reform aimed in part in ending the use of international tax havens.