June 16th, 2011
The Tax Justice Network has now collected a significant number of documents together in its
"Offshore History" page. The latest addition is a history of the emergence of the Cayman Islands as a tax haven / secrecy jurisdiction, which is
here.
The full Offshore History page currently reads as below. Comments and suggestions for additional material would be gratefully received.
Offshore History: Articles and online documents
Dec 2010 - Tax Analysts 40th anniversary commemorative book, where 50 tax folk are invited to answer the question:
What is one of the most significant changes to tax administration, practice, or...June 14th, 2011
Rumour reaches me that Jersey has failed its OECD peer review.
The
OECD says of the peer review process that:
The international fight against cross-border tax evasion has entered a new phase with the launch by countries participating in the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information of a peer review process covering a first group of 18 jurisdictions: Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Botswana, Cayman Islands, Denmark, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Jersey, Mauritius, Monaco, Norway, Panama, Qatar, San Marino, Seychelles and Trinidad & Tobago.
The reviews are a first step in a three-year process approved in February by the Global Forum in response to...
June 10th, 2011
Cross-posted, with small amendments, from the Treasure Islands blog.
A new report from
the IMF (hat tip: Markus Henn) tallies surprisingly closely, at least in part, with what members of the Task Force have been saying for some time. Take this, for example, on the role of secrecy jurisdictions (the IMF prefers the term Offshore Financial Centers, or OFCs:)
Before the 2008–09 economic crisis, many banks and hedge funds used OFCs for off-balance-sheet activities such as the so-called special purpose vehicles or structured investment vehicles. These vehicles were typically funded in onshore financial...
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June 2nd, 2011
In a piece titled
Dirty Money: Why does the international banking system make it so easy for corruption to flourish?, the People & Power series on Al Jazeera reports on kleptocrats, grand scale corruption, and the ease of channelling dirty money through the secrecy mechanisms of the global financial system,
Again, let's drive the point home here, we're talking secrecy - we are not disputing rights to due privacy - we are talking the kind of secrecy that allows criminals and tax cheats to profit with impunity, and to lead privileged...
