Tax Newsletter - March 2019 | Miscellaneous

European Union updates black list and grey list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes

Following the Ecofin meeting held on March 12, 2019, the European Council has decided to update the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes (the EU’s “black list” and “grey list”).

Until now only 5 jurisdictions had been placed on the black list  (of non-cooperative jurisdictions) appearing in the Annex to the Council Conclusions dated December 5, 2017: American Samoa, Guam, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago and the US Virgin Islands.

Another 10 jurisdictions have now been added to the list, as a result of not implementing their commitments since the previous black list was prepared: Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Dominica, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Vanuatu.

The grey list (of jurisdictions cooperating with the EU to reform their policies in tax matters, appearing in Annex II to the Council Conclusions dated December 5, 2017) has also been revised:

1. Of the jurisdictions included in the original screening process, 25 have now been cleared.
2. On the grey list, 34 jurisdictions will continue to be monitored and the European Council has decided to grant 11 of those 34 jurisdictions an extension of the time limit for meeting the necessary commitments to reform their policies in tax matters. The specific agreed commitments were to implement the automatic exchange of information, to sign and ratify the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance, to adapt their tax legislation by amending or eliminating harmful tax regimes or to implement the minimum measures or standards for implementing BEPS, among others.

Spanish finance authority releases notice on how to legalize interposed companies

The Spanish Tax Agency has published an information notice setting out the methods to be used to legalize interposed companies, with the express aim of enabling voluntary compliance with tax obligations, advising of practices that could be interpreted to be against the law, and lastly, of reducing lawsuits.

We discussed this law in our Tax Alert dated February 26, 2019.

Leave granted for cassation appeal on the interpretation of effective “use or enjoyment” for certain services to be subject to Spanish VAT

Supreme Court. Order of January 16, 2019

In this order, the Supreme Court held that there is cassational interest in discerning whether the marketing consulting and advisory services provided by a company established in Spanish VAT territory to a customer established in Gibraltar, not in Spanish VAT territory, and engaged in providing online gaming services through digital platforms, are subject to VAT.

In particular, the case involves clarifying whether those services, by being provided by a company established in Spanish VAT territory, must also be regarded as effectively used or enjoyed in that territory.