January 24, 2018 European Union removes Panama from list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes On January 23, 2018, the European Union (EU) removed Panama from its black list, along with seven other jurisdictions.1 The Council of the European Union (the Council) previously included Panama on the list of "Uncooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes" because Panama failed the fair taxation criteria. According to the list, Panama has a harmful preferential tax regime and did not clearly commit to amending or abolishing the regime by December 31, 2018.2 According to official statements from Panama, its inclusion resulted from the EU's evaluation of the Panamanian Call Centers regime, which was considered to have harmful tax features.3 The Council removed Panama from the list as a result of a proposal made by the Code of Conduct Group, which was adopted by EU finance ministers during their monthly meeting in Brussels. The proposal was based on commitment letters made by the delisted jurisdictions, which have not been made public. ——————————————— ——————————————— 1 See this link. 2 See Tax Alert 2017-2109. 3 See this link. | ||||