Bermuda has “acted promptly and effectively” in response to being named on the EU’s tax haven ‘blacklist’ and is likely to be removed on 17 May, according to Curtis Dickinson, Bermuda’s minister for finance.
The domicile was included on the EU’s updated blacklist on non-cooperative tax jurisdiction in March, which is part of its strategy to clamp down on tax evasion and avoidance.
In response to the inclusion, Dickinson and Premier David Burt traveled to Europe and met with EU commissioner Pierre Moscovic, who is responsible for economic and financial affairs as well as taxation and customs, on 29 March, and with Lyudmila Petkova, chair of the Code of Conduct Group on Business Taxation on 1 April.
Dickinson and Burt also visited the German and French Ministries of Finance.
Speaking in the Bermuda House of Assembly on 10 May, Dickinson explained that the meetings had “permitted Bermuda to further explain in detail the source and reasons for which there was a technical omission in our Economic Substance Regulations submission”.
He continued: “This omission was addressed and corrected to the satisfaction of the European authorities. Subsequent to these meetings we understand there was a meeting of the Code of Conduct Group on Business Taxation on April 11.”
Dickinson added: “I can report that Bermuda has acted promptly and effectively in order to be formally removed from the EU list, most likely at the May 17 meeting of the EU Finance Ministers.”
“Following our meetings and the assurances we received, we have every reason to believe that the EU Finance Ministers, on May 17, will remove Bermuda from Annex I of the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions in tax matters (the so-called ‘blacklist’).”
According to Dickinson, once Bermuda is removed from Annex I, it will join Annex II alongside the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands.
