SPAIN TO QUESTION GIB’S EXCLUSION FROM EU TAX BLACKLIST

Spain will call on the European Commission to include Gibraltar on the EU blacklist of tax havens published last week, it emerged over the weekend.

The list names the 30 top tax havens as identified by EU countries, but Gibraltar is not on it. Only nine of the EU’s 28 members – among them Spain – view the Rock as a harmful jurisdiction for taxation.
Gibraltar’s exclusion from the list has rankled with the Spanish Government, whose treasury minister, Cristóbal Montoro, said Spain has “more than sufficient reason” to view the Rock as a tax haven.

Spain is also angry that the list includes Andorra, a jurisdiction with which it has signed information exchange and double taxation agreements and which it no longer regards as a tax haven.

“We will address the Commission to clarify these issues,” Sr Montoro reportedly said.