On 9 October 2026, the Council of the European Union approved an update to the list of non-cooperative countries and territories for tax purposes. The main change from the previous update, in February 2026, is that Panama and Vietnam have been removed from the list. Both countries now move to the list of jurisdictions with pending commitments on tax good governance. No new jurisdictions were added, so the number of non-cooperative jurisdictions falls from 10 to 8.

The 8 non-cooperative jurisdictions are: American Samoa, Anguilla, Guam, Palau, Russia, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.

The Council also removed Belize from the list of jurisdictions with pending commitments. This follows a favourable assessment by the OECD Global Forum of Belize’s framework for exchanging tax information on request. The Council therefore considers that Belize has met the commitments that led to its inclusion on that list.

The EU list is separate from the Portuguese list of countries, territories and regions with privileged tax regimes, approved by Ministerial Order (Portaria) no. 150/2004, of 13 February. Changes to the EU list do not automatically change the Portuguese list. Even so, companies and groups with operations, counterparties or structures in the jurisdictions concerned should review how those operations are treated. The review should pay particular attention to reporting obligations for tax planning arrangements and to anti-money laundering due diligence procedures.

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