Bermuda says that it is no longer standing in the naughty corner as far as Poland is concerned, as controversy continues about the European Commission's blacklist.

While the European Commission’s “blacklist” of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions continues to cause controversy, one financial centre, Bermuda, has won some positive news by announcing it is no longer on Poland’s list of such locations.

Bob Richards, Bermuda’s minister of finance, announced yesterday that Poland’s embassy in London had stated that Bermuda was no longer on such a list of uncooperative jurisdictions as regards corporate tax.

The placing of jurisdictions on the blacklist has provoked an angry response in some quarters. At this news service’s sister publication, Compliance Matters, a raft of reactions can be seen here.

The Polish Ministry of Finance has contacted the European Commission to confirm that Bermuda qs no longer on Poland’s blacklist. Poland is one of the 11 EU member states that the European Commission used as its criterion to place Bermuda on the European Commission’s blacklist, a statement from the Bermuda government said.

The TIEA signed between Poland and Bermuda came into force on 15 March this year. Bermuda has also signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance on Tax Matters, a multilateral TIEA that includes Poland.

Bermuda currently has three international agreements with Poland for the exchange of information for tax purposes.

Richards was in London yesterday for meetings ahead of a trip to Paris and Brussels this week for meetings in Paris with the OECD Secretary General and Pascal Saint-Amans - director, Centre for Tax Policy, and meetings in Brussels with some members of the European Parliament.

Jurisdictions on the European Commission’s blacklist are Andorra, Liechtenstein, Guernsey, Monaco, Mauritius, Liberia, the Seychelles, Brunei, Hong Kong, the Maldives, Cook Islands, Nauru, Niue, the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Montserrat, Panama, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the US Virgin Islands.