Andorra is not a tax haven

 

The Council of the European Union has published on 22 February 2021 the revised list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, also known as tax havens. The changes to this list are based on the ratings published by the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. For the purposes of this list, the EU requires jurisdictions to comply extensively with the international standard for transparency and exchange of information on request (EOIR).

The criteria for including jurisdictions on this list are failure to meet agreed commitments related to reforms to bring them in line with good tax governance objectives, or that have not yet entered into a dialogue with the EU in this regard.

This report is published after the controversy in Spain about the ” escape ” of Spanish YouTubers to Andorra for the alleged sole purpose of saving taxes and the proposal by Spanish politicians for Andorra to be included in the list of tax havens. As expected, Andorra is not on this list published by the Council of the EU as it meets all the criteria of good governance and fiscal transparency.

Andorra, through its head of government, Xavier Espot, has stressed that the proposal from Spain starts “from a false premise that is based on prejudices” and made it clear that Andorra “is no longer a tax haven”. Furthermore, the criteria for granting tax residency in Andorra are clear, strict and must be fully complied with. There are no shortcuts for having large fortunes.

It is important to emphasize that Andorra offers much more than tax advantages: an enviable natural environment, high quality of life, privileged geographical location between Spain and France accessible by road, excellent health care, multilingual education system, high-speed Internet, signed tax information exchange and double taxation agreements… and for all these reasons we invite you to visit us and get to know Andorra better.