Financial Transparency Coalition

James R. Hines Jr., a professor at the University of Michigan who is routinely wheeled out by the tax havens as an academic apologist for their activities, has written an academic article entitled “Treasure Islands” which contains an elementary, fundamental error in the very first paragraph:

“Tax havens are small: most are islands; all but a few have populations below one million.”

If Hines has spent any time studying the offshore phenomenon, then he will know very well that the world’s biggest tax havens (or secrecy jurisdictions) — those that offer tax haven services – are large OECD economies or their...

Reproduced from the original on the Treasure Islands blog. This long blog is compiled as a result of email communications I've had with Michael Inglis, a tax barrister in Australia who has got in touch with me about Treasure Islands (he liked it, but wanted to discuss a few things.) Inglis has been closely involved with Australia’s Project Wickenby, a large, dedicated and remarkably successful effort to go after tax evaders and other criminals using offshore structures. As the Australian Tax Office puts it, Project Wickenby:

“was established in 2006 to...

This blog was originally written by TJN's John Christensen. It will be permanently archived on TJN's Information Exchange webpage. The April edition of the Journal of International Taxation (not available online) has a provocatively titled article on 'The Death of Information Exchange Agreements?' about the G-20 / OECD project for tackling tax evasion with tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs). Bottomline, the authors share TJN's view that TIEA's just don't cut the mustard, so powerful countries like the USA and EU member states use other tools: "The major countries of the western world have clearly started...

From the Treasure Islands blog: The website isleofman.com offers this breathless commentary:

"There are numerous firms now based here and one of them - Excalibur Almaz - plans to offer trips round the moon and back for space tourists at a cost of $31m."

That isn't an April Fool. This is for real. Now what is the Isle of Man's comparative advantage in space exploration? Perhaps its proximity to the equator, allowing the earth's spin to give it that extra boost, for added efficiency? Er, no: it's thousands of miles away. So is it the Isle of Man's close,...