In a report issued in 2000, the OECD identified a number of countries as tax havens. Between 2000 and April 2002, 31 of those countries made formal commitments to implement the OECD’s standards of transparency and exchange of information.
There remained seven (Andorra, Liechtenstein, Liberia, Monaco, The Marshall Islands, Nauru and Vanuatu) who did not make such commitments and were listed in April 2002 by the OECD as uncooperative tax havens.
Following a series of discussions Nauru and Vanuatu (in 2003) and Liberia and the Marshall Islands (in 2007) made commitments which resulted in their being removed from the list. Finally, in May 2009, the OECD decided to remove all three remaining countries (Andorra, Liechtenstein and Monaco) from the list of uncooperative tax havens as a result of their commitments to implement the OECD standards of transparency and effective exchange of information and the timetable they set for the implementation. As a result, there are currently no countries listed as uncooperative tax havens by the OECD.
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the increased availability of information, tax authorities on both sides of the Atlantic are stepping up their search for hidden assets. (See also our articles on the IRS offensive against hidden offshore accounts, the UK HMRC's NDO and LDF and Italy's tax amnesty.)
