Financial Transparency Coalition

In his riveting article “Push against offshore secrecy an uphill battle”, the Center for Public Integrity’s Michael Hudson provides fascinating background about the evolution of tax havens, including this bit of US history:

In 1921, the U.S. Congress raised questions about foreign subsidiaries that were used to “milk” their U.S. parent corporations, helping them cut tax bills. In 1937, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Americans were dodging taxes by setting up holding companies in the Bahamas, Newfoundland and elsewhere, resorting to “all manner of devices to prevent the acquisition of information regarding their companies.”

Hudson also examines what recent promises by G20 and other bodies might mean for the future of tax havens. A quote from the TJNA’s Alvin Mosioma provides a sobering synopsis:

“Rich nations have a reputation for making grand pronouncements and not keeping them. That for us is a reason for pessimism,” Mosioma says. “It’s also a reason to keep the pressure on. We can’t wait for another decade of talking about this.”