Overview
Panama Joins Common Reporting Standard Convention: The OECD announced that Panama became the 98th jurisdiction to join the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement for the Common Reporting Standard (the CRS MCAA). The CRS MCAA is the prime international agreement for implementing the automatic exchange of financial account information.
EU Officials Comment on Tax Haven List: Today the EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said to reporters, regarding the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes: “I confirm that a dozen blacklisted third countries have since December sent additional commitments. . . . It’s a good sign, since the purpose of a list is to get out and to get off of it you have to solve the problems that are identified.” It has been reported that EU officials have recommended removing Barbados, Grenada, Panama, Macao, Mongolia, South Korea, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates from the list. The other jurisdictions on the list are American Samoa, Bahrain, Guam, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Palau, Saint Lucia, Samoa, and Trinidad and Tobago.