Tax evasion

The Final Days of a Tax Haven

Vanuatu’s offshore financial center dates back to the early 1970s, when the British and French still shared administrative control over the islands, then known as the New Hebrides. The collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed-exchange rates, along with financial globalization, made capital far more mobile than it had ever been.

For Pacific island-states such as Vanuatu, Samoa, Niue, the Cook Islands, Tonga, and Nauru, setting up attractive tax and ­regulatory regimes to promote the offshore financial industry was a way of luring skilled professionals, financial know-how, and hard ­currency. The expats who found their way here stirred demand for better schooling, health care, and services. That in turn helped some of these islands develop tourism, an industry that now represents 50 percent of Vanuatu’s economy.

Then the haven experiment on the high seas began to ­unravel. The rise of global terrorism and tax evasion scandals that hit big international banks emboldened U.S. and European regulators to pressure global financial institutions and governments to hand over more information about suspicious transactions and complex money trails.

Tax evasion

Alleged Swiss spy to go on trial in Germany next month

A Swiss man accused of spying on German tax investigators for his homeland will go on trial in Frankfurt next month.

Frankfurt's state court said Tuesday the trial of the 54-year-old, identified only as Daniel M. in line with German privacy rules, will begin Oct. 18 and is scheduled to last until Dec. 21.

The man was arrested in April in Frankfurt, Germany's financial capital. Prosecutors have charged him with espionage, saying he was paid to obtain information on tax officials in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia between July 2011 and February 2015.

The state had purchased a stolen data CD containing details on German clients of Swiss banks, leading to numerous tax evasion cases. Switzerland expressed outrage at the move by its neighbor.

Tax evasion

Corporate America loves tax havens. It’s costing the US more than $100 billion.

The top 50 companies in the United States – which include Goldman Sachs, Walmart, Apple, and IBM – have concealed more than a trillion dollars offshore in 1,600-plus offshore subsidiary companies while still receiving trillions in federal loans, loan guarantees, and bailout assistance, the nonprofit charity Oxfam claims in a new report released Thursday.

"Corporate tax dodging costs the US an estimated $100 billion each year, a gap that the average American taxpayer would have to shell out an extra $760 to cover," the report said. Oxfam analyzed the largest 50 companies over a period of six years, comparing their reported profits, offshore holdings, and paid taxes.

Apple led among the 50 companies, with $181 billion in offshore holdings spread across three offshore subsidiaries, followed closely by General Electric, which had $119 billion in offshore holdings among 18 offshore subsidiaries while also receiving $27 billion in federal money.

Tax evasion

Canada Revenue offered amnesty to wealthy KPMG clients in offshore tax 'sham'

The Canada Revenue Agency offered amnesty to multi-millionaire clients caught using what's been called an offshore tax "sham" on the Isle of Man — a reprieve that was supposed to remain secret and out of the public eye until it was uncovered by a CBC News/Radio-Canada investigation. The amnesty allows for "high net worth" clients of the accounting giant KPMG to be free from any future civil or criminal prosecution — as well as any penalties or fines — for their involvement in the controversial scheme.

The clients simply had to agree to pay their back taxes and modest interest on these offshore investments, which they had failed to report on their income tax returns.

Tax evasion

UBS Tax Evasion Network in Latin America Revealed

The Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) had a network with intermediaries for Latin American countries who help launder money and evade taxes, it was learned here on Thursday.

The revelation was made in this capital by former UBS Director Stephanie Gibaud, who met here with members of a bicameral committee of the Argentinean Congress who are investigating 4,040 secret bank accounts in the Swiss branch of HSBC