The OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices (FHTP) has published the peer review results on countries’ progress in implementation of the BEPS Action 5 Minimum Standard (“Countering harmful tax practices more effectively, taking into account transparency and substance”).
The Forum noted significant legislative changes affecting 44 out of 49 previously analyzed tax regimes, 37 of which have been revised or abolished, and 7 are in the process of change. The remaining 5 regimes, according to the FHTP, currently do not carry base erosion or profit shifting risks.
Based on the 2020 assessment, the tax regimes of the following 18 jurisdictions have been found to be in compliance with the BEPS Action 5 minimum standard:
Aruba, Belize, Cook Islands, Curaçao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Georgia, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Maldives, Mauritius, Morocco, North Macedonia, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, Switzerland, Tunisia.
Besides this, one of the FHTP’s objectives is to ensure that companies from “no or only nominal tax jurisdictions” have a sufficient presence in such jurisdictions.
Currently all 12 jurisdictions (the list of which previously included Anguilla, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Turks and Caicos Islands and the United Arab Emirates) have a regulatory framework with the “economic substance” requirements including collection and reporting to the regulator the required information on activities of the reporting entities.