| tax 2002-03-21 |
| Belize, the Bahamas and Gibraltar are the latest tax havens belatedly to sign up to the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development’s harmful tax practices project.
All three have made commitments to improve the transparency of their tax and regulatory systems and to establish effective exchange of information for tax matters with OECD countries by 31 December 2005. Their commitments bring the total number of cooperative tax havens up to 25 out of the 35 identified by the OECD. A further three – Tonga, Barbados and the Maldives – have successfully lost their tax haven status. Although the Organisation had threatened to impose sanctions against any uncooperative tax havens after the 28 February 2002 deadline, a number of jurisdictions have committed to the initiative since this date, and the OECD is still encouraging the seven remaining tax havens to sign up. |