‘Tax Havens’ Articles
Panama – the last Tax Haven Hold Out – can they hang on against the might of the US patriot act? And the possible sanctions of the rest of the world. Maybe, just maybe, the tax havens are just reinventing the tax haven.
After the recent G20 summit Mr. Gordon Brown, Brittain’s PM declared the end of tax havens.
Are they really ending? Or is it going to be another political game of chess or backgammon? Maybe some chinese chess? ( try it).
So,
Here’s a rather tongue in cheek clip from A leading Panama newspaper, La Estrella (The Star).
[...seems to agree with Mr. Sambrook's view. In an editorial entitled "Panama must clean its image," it suggests a possible course to follow:
"Unfortunately, it would be predictable for Panamanian officials to attempt to sidestep the issue by imitating the recent announcements by the tax-haven nations of Andorra, Liechtenstein and Switzerland that they will address certain tax and banking transparency concerns.
"Why would Panama, a country whose comparative advantage is providing a haven for foreign firms to avoid taxes, consider such an announcement? Because the plans that the other three secrecy jurisdictions rolled out are far from adequate, full of loopholes, and do not represent a meaningful way forward for them - or for Panama.
"Thus, Panama could try to quell the growing controversy without making serious changes to its excessive banking secrecy and policies that waive taxes for foreign firms."]
Actually, rather than posting a long opinion, about Panama, simply read about “What Will Panama Do Now?” from the good folks at the Sovereign Society. It’s quite entertaining.
Technorati Tags: Panama
Tags: Panama
Posted in Featured, Tax Havens | No Comments »
The OECD mandated end to any tax haven such as Monaco required an end to banking secrecy.
That alone may spell the end of the resourceless principality which has become the playground of the very wealthy since 1869.
Some say the bell tolls but does that herald the end of Monaco as a tax haven or a new direction in the survival of this, the smallest nation on Earth (unless you include the Vatican which has only 1 sq. km. and a population of 920). Monaco has a population of 32,410 with a land area of 1.95 sq. km.
However, the G20 heavy handedness to end tax haven status to a number of jurisdictions pro-campaigners claim will make little difference, because foreign governments will have to provide evidence of an individual’s tax evasion before Monaco agrees to hand over their bank details. 
Monaco has a total of 35,000 residents, but 350,000 bank accounts containing total deposits of more than £80bn. Many European nations want their hands on that moneyor at least a larger proportion of it.
But that is not all that’s been happening behind the scenes. Monaco has already complied to many European demands of withholding wealth taxes, providing the Bank of France banking information of French nationals, impose a wealth tax on EU residents.
All of that activity sounds dire to Monaco’s Status as a Tax Haven par excellence. But that principality is not sitting still and leaving themselves at the mercy of the G20 nations.
“Monaco” Exclusive Private Label
The tourist board has embarked on a five-year plan to develop Monaco as a destination brand.
Among its ideas is what was originally called Concept URI or ”ultra-rich individuals” which has since been ratcheted down slightly to include HNWI or high net worth individuals – acknowledging the global economic crisis.
Monaco’s network of 100 honorary consuls dotted around the world have been set the task of identifying some extremely wealthy people, particularly in developing economies such as India, Brazil and Russia.
Will it work? Well, getting ultra wealthy friends from around the world can’t hurt. The number of yachts and the continuation of the Formula 1 show in Monaco still says they do have the right votes.
Technorati Tags: Monaco
Tags: Monaco
Posted in Tax Havens | No Comments »
I wrote about the power of money, but I’m finding more reason to be in awe of the mega power of money.
It makes one wonder just how much is there out there. Especially when there has been more than one en masse capital withdrawal from the active markets. In short, they are hiding their money under their mattresses. Or is there another reason money seem to have gone somewhere else?
The Graph from Oxbury Research shows how much capital has actually been leaving investments and turning into apparent cash. Just cash. From where did all these dollars come from? There must be a source of where this money seem to have appeared out of nowhere.
Capital flight from poorly performing markets is no surprise, but where money really has gone is somewhat of a mystery.
That begs the question just how much money is out there?
Some of it of course, are in offshore tax havens and also, less known are the tax shelters within your own countries. This is the governments’ way of fighting flight capital into some far off jurisdictions.
So why not keep capital here at home? So what if that money is not taxed to its maximum. This very same capital is more likely to be reinvested within the country. For example a Nevada Corporation for your asset protection.
The point of the mega power that money has?
When something can worry and move governments to take more action to try to keep money from going offshore, even to the point of not taxing them, that’s mega power!
Technorati Tags: Money, Power of Money
Tags: Money, Power of Money
Posted in Offshore Tax Haven, Power of Money, Tax Havens | 5 Comments »
Tax Havens, the enemies of legitimate tax jurisdictions are coming under attack – once again.
While populations around the world are screaming for tax relief, those same finance ministers are trying to attack the No Tax jurisdictions, trying to push the blame their loss of tax revenues in a significant part on these tax havens. This seems to be an annual affair but has taken renewed vigour with this world wide recession government budgets are being considered, and international trade dialogues convene.
But frankly, these political rhetorics are really tiresome and tries to sway opinion from the real problem – the cripling taxation most countries operate under. There are so many inconsistencies in their war cry against the so called bad guys…
Some countries simply operate under a low tax system, not a no tax ideology – simply turn your gaze to Singapore or Hong Kong.
The hypocritical no tax policies are often already pursued by these countries that have very high taxes to attract foreign investment.
Tax Havens by themselves have never broken any international trade laws.
Tax Havens are rarely used to launder money or used by criminals according to the research by the CIA and the IRS.
But really this issue will not go away as long as there are those trying to escape cripling taxes and there are those willing to accomodate them. And here’s the irony, the high tax jurisdictions are both the pursuer and pursued too. To read more about this drama taking place, read this.
Technorati Tags: Crippling Taxes, Tax Havens
Tags: Crippling Taxes, Tax Havens
Posted in Financial Freedom, Sovereign Journeys, Tax Havens | 2 Comments »
