The Cayman Islands has been removed from the EU tax blacklist, after being added to the list earlier in 2020.

The Council of the European Union today announced that the Cayman Islands had been removed from the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.

Cayman was originally added to the blacklist in February 2020, while Bermuda was removed from the list.

Cayman Islands is currently the second largest captive domicile in the world, with 646 captives licensed in the country as of 31 December 2019.

The Council stated that Cayman was removed from the blacklist after the country “adopted new reforms to its framework on Collective Investment Funds in September 2020”.

The list “aims to contribute to ongoing efforts to promote tax good governance worldwide” according to the EU Council.

“It lists non-EU jurisdictions that either have not engaged in a constructive dialogue with the EU on tax governance or have failed to deliver on their commitments to implement reforms to comply with a set of objective tax good governance criteria, concerning tax transparency, fair taxation and implementation of international standards against tax base erosion and profit shifting,” the organisation said.

While Cayman was removed from the list, captive domiciles Anguilla and Barbados were added to the list, with council saying Anguilla was non-compliant and Barbados partially compliment with EU tax

Twelve countries now remain on the tax blacklist, four of which are captive domiciles: Anguilla, Barbados, the US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.