【Media Release】薩摩亞有望脫離歐盟黑名單Samoa European Union’s List
SAMOA EUROPEAN UNION’S LIST (24th FEBRUARY 2021)
The results of the European Union’s tax blacklist review have been just released.
It is pleasing to note that the EU has accepted that Samoa is making good progress towards delisting from the blacklist.
Of the two criteria that Samoa was found to be deficient, we have now fully complied with one of them.
Way forward
Samoa is a responsible participant in the international tax arena; hence our commitment to work collaboratively with the EU (and other international bodies) to ensure delisting and finding the most appropriate pathways for Samoa to enable compliance with the outstanding EU criteria.
Owing to the complexity of the issues involved, this work is anticipated to take some time, however we expect to have Samoa reviewed for delisting at the EU’s next review in October 2021.
Is the EU tax blacklist working?
No doubt there are widespread concerns that the EU blacklist is not fair and is biased against smaller countries. All but one of the twelve blacklisted countries has a population of less than 1 million.
A comprehensive analysis recently done by Tax Justice Network (TJN) in its “State of Tax Justice 2020” has revealed that all twelve countries blacklisted by the EU cause less than 2 percent of global tax losses.
Hence Samoa’s contribution to global tax losses is a mere fraction of a percent. EU member states themselves account for 36% of global tax avoidance yet are never at any serious risk of being blacklisted.
Samoa is committed to good tax practices and joins a growing concern worldwide about problems with the EU blacklisting criteria and process.
The EU needs to ensure a “level playing field” with all countries they are in partnership with in terms of equitably set tax governance norms.
歐盟稅務黑名單審查結果剛剛出爐(2021.2.24.)
令人高興的是，歐盟已經接受薩摩亞有好好的改進將自黑名單除名。在薩摩亞被認定不足的兩項標準中，我們現在已完全遵循其中一項。
薩摩亞在前進的道路上是國際稅務領域上是負責任的參與者。因此，我們承諾與歐盟（及其他國際機構）合作，確保薩摩亞擺脫黑名單，並找到最合適的途徑以符合歐盟卓著的標準。
由於涉及問題的複雜性，這項工作預計需要一些時間，無論如何我們期望 2021 年 10 月歐盟下一次審查會中對薩摩亞進行除名審查。
歐盟稅務黑名單有效力嗎？
毫無疑問的這是普遍的擔憂，歐盟黑名單不公平，對小國有偏見。十二個黑名單國家中除一個國家外，人口均少於一百萬人。
稅收正義聯盟 (TJN) 最近在“2020 稅務正義國家”進行綜合分析顯示，被歐盟列入黑名單的12 個國家，造成的全球稅收損失不到 2%。因此，薩摩亞對全球稅收損失甚至不及1%。
歐盟成員國本身佔全球避稅行為的 36%，但從未面臨被列入有嚴重風險的黑名單。
薩摩亞致力於良好的稅收實踐，並加入了全球日益關注於歐盟黑名單標準和流程問題的行列。就公平定的稅收治理規範而言，歐盟需要確保與其合作的所有國家有一個“公平競爭的環境” 。
【延伸閱讀】
參考資料來源：PRESS RELEASE – Samoa International Finance Authority 新聞出處
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