Defensive measures against non-cooperative jurisdictions

The EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes was launched on December 5, 2017 as part of the EU’s efforts to address harmful tax competition. The list is published as an annex to conclusions adopted by the Council of the EU (Annex I) and is composed of countries that have failed to comply with tax good governance, fair taxation and global tax transparency criteria developed by the EU. Jurisdictions that do not yet comply with the EU criteria but that have committed to implementing reforms are included in a state of play document (Annex II).

The EU List is an ongoing project and is regularly updated and revised – typically in February and October of each year.

The EU List of non-cooperative jurisdictions is relevant for the application of EU-wide measures, including the EU mandatory disclosure rules (DAC 6), the EU public country-by-country reporting rules, and the general framework for securitization (Regulation (EU) 2021/557). In addition, EU Member States have committed to applying at least one of the four types of legislative defensive measures suggested by the EU Code of Conduct Group: non-deductibility of costs, controlled foreign company {CFC) rules, withholding tax measures or limitation of participation exemption on profit distribution, as well as administrative counter-measures.

Against this background, KPMG’s EU Tax Centre has conducted a survey to understand how each EU Member State applies the legislative tax measures against listed jurisdictions. Further insights on the relevance of the EU list and Member States’ approaches to defensive measures are available below:

Please note that the information is generally valid as at March 2023, unless stated otherwise. The data presented is of a general nature and subject to change.