Search results

European Union finance ministers have removed the British territory of Bermuda, Barbados, and the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba from the EU blacklist of tax havens today.

The EU will soon release a blacklist of tax havens operating outside the EU, and issue penalties for those appearing on it. This report shows what a robust blacklist would look like if the EU were to objectively apply its own criteria and not bow to political pressure.

Responding to the announcement that the Cayman Islands has been removed from the EU tax haven blacklist, Chiara Putaturo, Oxfam’s EU Tax Policy Advisor, said: “While we welcome the addition of Barbados, removing the Cayman Islands, one of the world’s most notorious tax havens, from the EU tax haven blacklist is further proof that the process isn’t working."    

More than 300 leading economists from 30 countries have today written to world leaders warning that there is no economic justification for allowing tax havens to continue, and urging them to bring an end to offshore financial secrecy. The letter comes ahead of the UK Government’s summit on offshore corruption in London on Thursday, which politicians from 40 countries as well as World Bank and IMF representatives are expected to attend.

Fifty one of the 68 companies that were lent money by the World Bank’s private lending arm in 2015 to finance investments in sub-Saharan Africa use tax havens, Oxfam revealed today.

EU Finance Ministers must ensure countries removed from the tax haven blacklist deliver significant reforms, said Oxfam today, following an announcement that the Caribbean Islands of the Bahamas, and Saint Kitts and Nevis have been taken off the list.

The Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg and Cyprus are among the world’s 15 worst corporate tax havens, according to new Oxfam research published today. The report ‘Tax Battles’ reveals a global race to the bottom on corporate tax that is starving countries out of billions of dollars needed to tackle poverty and inequality.

47 economists and experts from across Japan, including Iwahito Katsui, renowned economist and professor emeritus at Tokyo University, have come together to urge the Japanese government to take a lead on tackling tax havens at the G7 Leaders Summit.

The upcoming EU tax haven blacklist has to include at least 35 countries, including notorious tax havens such as Switzerland and Bermuda, in order to be effective, Oxfam finds in a new report published today. The analysis also shows that at least 4 EU countries would be blacklisted if the EU were to apply its own criteria to member states.