Ukraine removes five countries from tax havens watchlist

Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has removed Estonia, Latvia, Georgia, Hungary, and Malta from the watchlist of tax havens.

The decision was made at a government meeting on Wednesday, January 31.

Read alsoLatvia urges Ukraine to remove it from tax havens watchlist, sends official note"We constantly monitor the tax systems of other countries and draw up lists of requirements for Ukrainian companies that work with those countries so that they report on their profits. Not long ago, it was decided to expand this list by including Estonia, Latvia, Georgia, and our partners got concerned over this issue," Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said.

He recalled that he had discussed this issue with the Prime Minister of Estonia.

"Today, we've decided to abolish these requirements for Estonia, Latvia, Georgia, Hungary," the prime minister said.

Malta was also removed from the list at the suggestion of Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk.

He noted that additional consultations would be held with international partners.

"Some countries have norms through which money can be withdrawn from Ukraine at a zero rate. We are worried about that since the money flows out of the country. Therefore, we will now hold consultations," the minister said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the Ukrainian government signed a decree on December 27, 2017, that added 22 countries to its offshore watchlist, Estonia was among them. With the same decision, another two countries, Lesotho and Guyana, were removed from the list.

The watchlist covers 85 countries. Apart from Estonia, places like Latvia, Georgia, Hungary, Iran, Malta, Cuba, and Morocco were added along with Asian states like Singapore, or countries in the Middle East.