The EU supports two reasons for keeping Panama as a tax haven

Bahamas, Belize, Seychelles and Turks and Caicos Islands were eliminated from the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions of the European Union for tax purposes, but Panama and 11 other jurisdictions did not meet expectations to be excluded from the discriminatory list.

The panel concluded that Panama does not have the minimum rating “Mostly accomplished” for him Global forum to exchange information on request.

He also felt that Panama has a harmful foreign source income exemption regime and has not yet resolved these issues.

In this way, Panama remains on the list of tax havens along with American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Fiji. Guam, Palau, Panama, Russia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.

The Council expressed its regret that these jurisdictions still do not cooperate in tax matters and calls on them to improve their legal framework in order to solve the perceived problems.

This is what the Council concluded on the revised list European Union of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, which was approved by the Council for General Affairs at the session held on February 20, 2024.

The body reiterated the importance of promoting and strengthening standards of good tax management, including in the area of ​​fair taxation and tax transparency, and the fight against tax fraud, evasion and tax avoidance, both at the level of the European Union and worldwide.

The list is updated twice a year to monitor developments, usually in February and October, under the auspices of EU finance ministers.

The next revision of the list is scheduled for October 2024.

In March 2019, the Council decided to limit updating the list to twice a year from 2020 to give EU member states enough time to amend national legislation as needed.