This article was first published on Tax@Hand, and is reproduced on this blog with the authorization of its authors.
France’s list of noncooperative states and territories (NCSTs) was updated on 7 May 2025 to remove Belize, the Bahamas, and the Seychelles. The Ministry of Finance updates the NCST list every year.
As a reminder, since 1 January 2010, defensive tax measures apply to jurisdictions on the list, including, for example, the non-application of the French participation exemption regime, increased withholding taxes on outbound payments, and the strengthened application of domestic anti-abuse measures.
Since 1 December 2018, the list of NCSTs also includes the jurisdictions referred to in the EU list of noncooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. However, the modification of the list is conditioned upon the publication of a specific decree to that effect by the French tax authorities (FTA).
The measures that apply to the noncooperative jurisdictions listed by the EU depend on why the jurisdictions are considered noncooperative. Jurisdictions with rules/regimes that facilitate offshore structures or arrangements aimed at attracting profits that do not reflect real economic activity are subject to all defensive tax measures, while jurisdictions listed because they do not fulfill another criterion are subject only to some of these measures.
France’s updated list currently includes the following 13 states and territories:
Jurisdictions subject to all French defensive tax measures:
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- Vanuatu
Jurisdictions subject to only some of the French defensive tax measures:
- American Samoa
- Fiji
- Guam
- Palau
- Panama
- Russia
- Samoa
- Trinidad and Tobago
- US Virgin Islands
Dissuasive measures apply to states added to the list as from the first day of the third month following the publication of the decree (i.e., 1 August 2025 in this case), and cease to apply to states removed from the list as from the date of publication of the decree (i.e., 7 May 2025).