Belize Named as One of World’s Worst Tax Havens

On Wednesday, Moody’s Investors Service reported that Belize’s debt is unsustainable. Tonight, we report that Belize is among fourteen Caribbean countries blacklisted by the European Union as the world’s worst tax havens. The others are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, and the British Overseas Territories of Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The EU list was released on Wednesday; the group was identified by a number of EU member states, as countries that are not doing enough to crack down on tax avoidance. Interestingly, jurisdictions commonly labelled as offshore tax avoidance hubs, including Luxembourg, Jersey and Switzerland, were not on the list. The European Commission issued the list at the same time it unveiled a plan for tackling corporate tax avoidance. The aim is to tax companies where they earn their profits, rather than allowing firms to shift money into low-tax jurisdictions. Sixteen other countries are also on the list. They are: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Guernsey, Monaco, Mauritius, Liberia, Seychelles, Brunei, Hong Kong, Maldives, Cook Islands, Nauru, Niue, Marshall Islands, Panama and Vanuatu.