October 10 (SeeNews) - The Council of the European Union (EU) has taken Albania and Serbia off the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, it said on Thursday.
The European Council has found Serbia and Albania implemented ahead of their deadline all necessary reforms to comply with EU tax good governance principles, it said in a statement on Thursday.
The countries will be removed from annex II of the conclusions adopted by the Council which includes jurisdictions that have undertaken sufficient commitments to reform their tax policies and whose reforms are being monitored by the Council's code of conduct group on business taxation.
On August 30, Serbia ratified the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance (MAC) as amended, while Albania joined the Inclusive Framework on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) on August 8, the EU Council said.
Therefore, Serbia and Albania were completely removed from the "State of play of the cooperation with the EU with respect to commitments taken to implement tax good governance principles" annex of the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.
Among countries in Southeastern Europe (SEE), Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Montenegro are still listed in the annex, as they are committed to sign and ratify the MAC or to have in place a network of agreements covering all EU Member States by end 2019.
The EU list contributes to on-going efforts to prevent tax avoidance and promote good governance principles such as tax transparency, fair taxation or international standards against tax base erosion and profit shifting.