The EU removed Panama from its tax havens blacklist on Friday after the country made progress on sharing tax information and reformed a “harmful” regime of exemptions for foreign-source income.
Vietnam was also removed after undertaking a series of reforms. The updated list now contains eight “non-cooperative” jurisdictions: American Samoa, Anguilla, Guam, Palau, Russia, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.
“This update reflects a positive trend in compliance with international tax good governance standards,” the EU said in a statement.
The list was created in 2017 in the wake of a series of scandals, including the so-called Panama Papers that revealed how the world’s wealthy stashed assets in offshore companies, triggering scores of investigations around the globe.