appear to be engaging in "harmful tax competition''.

But the Paris-based organisation is whittling that list down to the worst offenders before its 29 member countries fully aim the cross-hairs and pull the trigger at the offending countries.

And some commentators are already suggesting investors with money in jurisdictions on the final list could face heavy penalties and possibly be forced to pay tax twice on the earnings from the countries in question.

By next spring the OECD will have its final list for its member states who have all vowed to employ a range of sanctions aimed at reforming the tax miscreants.

The OECD members are then expected to renounce or renegotiate tax and investment treaties with the jurisdictions deemed to be operating the offending tax shelters.

Businessweek this week reported a "newsflash'' that investors and depositors in such "potential target countries'' as "Bermuda and the Cayman Islands'' could suffer from being "double taxed'' on their earnings.

OECD deputy secretary general Joanna Shelton told Businessweek that tax havens were "scrambling to talk'' to the body's investigators since "nobody wants to appear on this list''.