The District of Columbia has done a U-turn on a controversial list of tax havens that included Bermuda.

The municipality of Washington DC has repealed the 39-jurisdiction list only a week after it came into effect.

The Island was included on the list in changes to the Washington DC municipality’s Budget Support Act — a move that prompted the Ministry of Finance to launch a defence of Bermuda’s tax laws.

Bob Richards, the Finance Minister, pointed out that — in addition to a tax information exchange agreement with the US — the then US Consul General Bob Settje said in 2013 when Bermuda signed the USA/Bermuda Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) agreement that his government did not consider Bermuda to be a tax haven.

Washington DC council chairman Phil Mendelson, who has indicated hs continued support for the tax-haven list in a memorandum describing the enacted amendment, said that “the enumerated list improves enforcement and is based on legislation adopted in two states...repeal allows for additional time to evaluate what jurisdictions should qualify as a tax haven under existing law.”

The now-repealed changes would have had to be approved by the US Congress before becoming law.