Economic sanctions threat to tax havens blacklisted by OECD.

The OECD has threatened punitive action including economic sanctions against the 35 offshore tax havens it named and shamed in a report on harmful tax practices, writes Ben Griffiths. The Channel Islands, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man are among those jurisdictions facing action if they fail to co-operate with the global crackdown on practices the OECD claims harm trade and investment. A global dialogue on harmful tax practices was also launched to discuss how to develop a global response to the challenges of harmful tax practices – defined by the Paris-based organisation as those that offer zero, or low tax rates, but fall short of legal and administrative transparency. Those names published were chosen from an initial list of 47 jurisdictions identified as targets for investigation. Six threatened centres did not appear – Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Malta, Mauritius and San Marino – as they agreed last week to co-operate. Six others – Costa Rica, Jamaica, Dubai, Brunei, Macao and Tuvalu – were reportedly dropped from the list because they passed OECD tests. Meanwhile, 15 jurisdictions identified as non co-operative by the Financial Action Task Force on money laundering have been encouraged to improve their practices. Full blacklist accountancyage.com/News/1104713.