Law 11/2021 of 9 July 2021 on measures to prevent and combat tax fraud ("Law 11/2021") introduced changes to Law 36/2006 of 29 November 2006 on measures for the prevention of tax fraud in relation to tax havens now referred to as "non-cooperative jurisdictions" ("JNC”). In particular, the new regulation indicated that countries and territories, as well as harmful tax regimes, that were determined by the Minister of Finance by Ministerial Order would be considered JNC, and that this list must be based on a series of criteria assessed in the Law itself (e.g. tax transparency, low or no taxation, etc.).
Well, a year and a half later, in 2023, the Ministerial Order was published determining the countries and territories, as well as the harmful tax regimes, that would be considered JNC as of that date. The Order lists a total of 24 non-cooperative jurisdictions, namely: Anguilla, Bahrain, Barbados, Bermuda, Dominica, Fiji, Gibraltar, Guam, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Mariana Islands, British Virgin Islands, Jersey, Palau, Solomon Islands, American Samoa, Turks and Caicos Islands, with respect to their offshore business, American Samoa, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, Vanuatu
In this way, the Order maintained countries and territories that were already on the list in force, incorporated some new ones (Barbados, Guam, Palau, Samoa as regards its offshore business, American Samoa and Trinidad and Tobago) and removed a good number of them from the list (Antigua and Barbuda, Brunei, Cook Islands, Grenada, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Macau, Mauritius, Monaco, Montserrat, Nauru, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines).
While the renewal of a list whose original wording dated from 1991 was very welcome, it is true that its final content left a bitter taste, among other things, because of the absolute lack of transparency as to the criteria applied and the conclusions reached in a general and individual manner by jurisdiction. Perhaps the most disappointing examples were the Channel Islands (Guernsey and Jersey) and the Cayman Islands, jurisdictions that have long been fully compliant in terms of tax transparency in the studies and lists of all international bodies and which, however, were and are maintained as JNC for Spanish purposes.
In addition, the Spanish JNC list is still far from other blacklists of tax jurisdictions issued by international organizations to which, paradoxically, Spain belongs, such as the European Union and the OECD.
Therefore, after several years since the publication of this list, its update is once again timely, taking into account, above all, that the European Union has published in 2026 the renewal of its own list of non-cooperative jurisdictions, which contains only 8 jurisdictions on the Spanish list (Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Guam, Palau, Turks and Caicos Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Vanuatu) and includes 11 jurisdictions other than those on the Spanish list (Belize, Brunei Darussalam, Eswatini, Panama, Russian Federation, Greenland, Jordan, Montenegro, Morocco, Turkey and Vietnam).
Once again, we are facing a complicated regulation to navigate, considering the myriad of anti-tax haven regulations that dot here and there throughout our tax system. Addleshaw Goddard's Tax Department in Madrid is available to all our clients, current and future, to help them when they have any type of economic relationship with any of the aforementioned jurisdictions.
