The OECD meeting in Paris has agreed that the international organisation will draw up a new blacklist of uncooperative tax havens.
The seventeen countries present at the OECD meeting in Paris have agreed that the international organisation will draw up a new blacklist of uncooperative tax havens, as momentum gathers across Europe for a renewed attack on offshore financial centres.
“We cannot resolve the financial crisis by introducing more regulation and leaving pockets of non-regulation to prosper,” said Pascal Saint Amans, head of the OECD’s international tax division.
French Budget Minister Eric Woerth has indicated he would like the updated list to be ready for the next OECD meeting, scheduled for May/June 2009. France and Germany have helped spearhead the renewed crackdown on offshore centres.
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The original OECD list was drawn up nearly ten years ago, and has embarrassed many countries into reforming taxes and enforcing greater transparency. Currently, Monaco, Andorra and Liechtenstein are the only ones still blacklisted.
On Tuesday, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbruck said Switzerland merited a place on the updated list, accusing the country of not showing enough international cooperation on tax matters.
Last week President Nicolas Sarkozy questioned why banks receiving government backing could still justify their offshore operations, while Prime Minister Francois Fillon called for the banning of offshore banking altogether, saying such ‘black holes’ threaten the stability of global finance.
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