Tax haven explained



There are several definitions of tax havens. The Economist has tentatively adopted the description by Geoffrey Colin Powell (former Economic Adviser to Jersey): "What ... identifies an area as a tax haven is the existence of a composite tax structure established deliberately to take advantage of, and exploit, a worldwide demand for opportunities to engage in tax avoidance." The Economist points out that this definition would still exclude a number of jurisdictions traditionally thought of as tax havens.[1] Similarly, others have suggested that any country which modifies its tax laws to attract foreign capital could be considered a tax haven[2] . According to other definitions,[3] the central feature of a haven is that its laws and other measures can be used to evade or avoid the tax laws or regulations of other jurisdictions.

In its December 2008 report on the use of tax havens by American corporations,[4] the U.S. Government Accountability Office was unable to find a satisfactory definition of a tax haven but regarded the following characteristics as indicative of a tax haven: (1) no or nominal taxes; (2) lack of effective exchange of tax information with foreign tax authorities; (3) lack of transparency in the operation of legislative, legal or administrative provisions; (4) no requirement for a substantive local presence; and (5) self-promotion as an offshore financial center.

One argument in favor of tax havens is that they help pressure developed countries to reduce their tax rates.[5]


To a certain extent, the founding concept of a tax haven appeared as an economic response to the principle of taxes. For instance, in Ancient Greece, some of the Greek Islands were used as depositories by the sea traders of the era to place their foreign goods to thus avoid the two-percent tax imposed by the city-state of Athens on imported goods. In the Middle Ages, Hanseatic traders who set up business in London were exempt from tax. The U.S. is not new to tax haven users. In 1721, American colonies traded from Latin America to avoid English taxes.

The use of differing tax laws between two or more countries to try and mitigate tax liability is probably as old as taxation itself. It is sometimes suggested that the practice first reached prominence through the avoidance of the Cinque ports and later the staple ports in the twelfth and fourteenth centuries respectively. Others suggest that the Hanseatic League first embraced the concept of tax competition as early as 1241, while others argue that the tax status of the Vatican City was the earliest example of a tax haven (the first Papal States being recognized in 756).

Various countries claim to be the oldest tax haven in the world. For example, the Channel Islands claim their tax independence dating as far back as Norman Conquest, while the Isle of Man claims to trace its fiscal independence to even earlier times. Nonetheless, the modern concept of a tax haven is generally accepted to have emerged at an uncertain point in the immediate aftermath of World War I.[6] Bermuda sometimes optimistically claims to have been the first tax haven based upon the creation of the first offshore companies legislation in 1935 by the newly created law firm of Conyers Dill & Pearman.[7] However, the Bermudian claim is debatable when compared against the enactment of a Trust Law by Liechtenstein in 1926 to attract offshore capital.[8]

Most economic commentators suggest that the first "true" tax haven was Switzerland, followed closely by Liechtenstein.[9] During the early part of the twentieth century, Swiss banks had long been a capital haven for people fleeing social upheaval in Russia, Germany, South America and elsewhere. However, in the years immediately following World War I, many European governments raised taxes sharply to help pay for reconstruction effort following the devastation of World War I. By and large, Switzerland, having remained neutral during the Great War, avoided these additional infrastructure costs and was consequently able to maintain a low-level of taxes. As a result, there was a considerable influx of capital into the country for tax related reasons. It is difficult, nonetheless, to pinpoint a single event or precise date which clearly identifies the emergence of the modern tax haven.


Presently, the growth of tax havens is primarily due to the considerable growth of offshore banking. This expansion is also due to the globalisation of the world's businesses. Indeed, they look for new markets and cheap labour. Midway through the twentieth century, when most of the world's colonies attained their emancipation and independence, they, for the most part, developed their own tax and trade regimes thus creating certain economic disparities around the world.

Such disparities, however, are not enough for a nation to qualify itself as a tax haven. In brief, a favourable, overall national environment is needed to spur a definition as a tax haven. In general, essential elements such as a stable political and economic government, as well as a strong network of communication facilities are needed for a nation to identify itself as a tax haven. Discretion is the main tax havens’ attraction. It is therefore very delicate for countries’ tax authorities to measure or compare tax avoidance. Nevertheless, some countries such as the US published reports and statistics showing the economic impact and the expansion of tax havens. This tax avoidance phenomenon have impact in terms of tax’s loss of revenue but also on the country.

The use of modern tax havens has gone through several phases of development subsequent to the interwar period. From the 1920s to the 1950s, tax havens were usually referenced as the avoidance of personal taxation. The terminology was often used with reference to countries to which a person could retire and mitigate their post retirement tax position.[10] However, from the 1950s onwards, there was significant growth in the use of tax havens by corporate groups to mitigate their global tax burden. This strategy generally relied upon there being a double taxation treaty between a large jurisdiction with a high tax burden (that the company would otherwise be subject to), and a smaller jurisdiction with a low tax burden. Thus, corporations, by structuring the group ownership through the smaller jurisdiction, could take advantage of the double taxation treaty, thereby paying taxes at the much lower rate. Although some of these double tax treaties survive,[11] in the 1970s, most major countries began repealing their double taxation treaties with micro-states to prevent corporate tax leakage in this manner.

In the early to mid-1980s, most tax havens changed the focus of their legislation to create corporate vehicles which were "ring-fenced" and exempt from local taxation (although they usually could not trade locally either). These vehicles were usually called "exempt companies" or "International Business Corporations". However, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the OECD began a series of initiatives aimed at tax havens to curb the abuse of what the OECD referred to as "unfair tax competition". Under pressure from the OECD, most major tax havens repealed their laws permitting these ring-fenced vehicles to be incorporated, but concurrently they amended their tax laws so that a company which did not actually trade within the jurisdiction would not accrue any local tax liability.[12]

Economic and political stability

It is difficult to establish a country’s economic and politic stability at a precise point in time. Evaluating its politic risks for the coming years is even more difficult.

Nevertheless, a country’s political stability is a very important specification to look for when choosing a tax haven, especially for long term users. Some stable countries are easily foreseeable. They are those attached to economically powerful countries: Monaco, Liechtenstein, Channel Islands, Bermuda, Andorra, etc. Others, even though independent are stable: Switzerland, Luxembourg, Holland.

The Bahamas closest island is fifty miles off the coast of Florida and its culture is heavily influenced by the United States of America. It is an archipelago composed of 700 islands, of which twenty-two islands are inhabited with human settlements. The country's demographics are composed of approximately 75% of sub-Saharan African descent and 25% white and other descent. The economy is capitalistic in nature, drawing from its colonial British history. However the division of wealth of the residential population is sharp, even though its GNP is one of the highest in the Caribbean.

Nonetheless, the Bahamas has had political stability since independence was granted by the British Crown in 1973. The country's proximity to the US has fostered considerable economic growth in the tourism industry. With a thriving legal industry and strong adherence to the rule of law the banking industry is recognized as stable and reliable by the OECD.

Lebanon’s politic instability has scared off its investors. On the other hand, Bermuda is considered as a very stable country probably due to the good relations and the treaties signed with the US.

The CFCE (Centre Français du Commerce Exterieur) created a data bank to those wishing to trade or invest in foreign countries. Private specialist cabinet also provide this kind of information using different methods and specialised in geographic areas. These specialist cabinets are: Data Resources Incorporated (DRI), World Political Risk Forecast (WPRF), Multinational Risk Inc., BERI periodically produces a 'Political Risk Review'. The monthly UK magazine Euromoney published a political risk survey of over 30 countries.

The risk evaluation is an old practice for important international companies as political instability can lead to the loss of all investments in the country. Therefore the best protection is diversification according to the tax havens specificity. In addition, the possibility to move assets quickly from a country without jeopardising the company should also be an important factors to take into account when choosing a tax haven.


Although tax havens are traditionally linked with images of prosperity,[13] there have also been notable failures.

Money and exchange control

Most of the tax havens have a double monetary control system which distinguish residents from non resident as well as foreign currency from the domestic one. In general, residents are subject to monetary controls but not non residents.

A company, belonging to a non resident, when trading overseas is seen as non resident in terms of exchange control. Therefore, it is possible for a foreigner to create a company in a tax haven to trade on an international basis. The company’s operations will not be subject to exchange controls as long as it uses foreign currency to trade outside. On the other hand, if the country does not have a stable currency, the authorisation to transfer profits and assets in convertible currency would not be granted. This situation can lead to a loss of interest to trade with that country.

Some tax havens have complex exchange control laws, it is therefore necessary to have, prior to any investment, the country's authorisation. Investors have to be prudent in their commercial agreements if they have not received the country authorisation.

Tax havens also have to have an easily convertible currency or linked to an easily convertible one. Most of them are convertible to US dollars or to pounds sterling. US dollars are nevertheless the more widely used and is welcome in all tax havens situated in the Caribbean. In Liberia, the US dollar is considered legal tender and US notes circulate in the country. The euro is used in Monaco.


At the risk of gross oversimplification, it can be said that the advantages of tax havens are viewed in four principal contexts:[15]

The OECD and tax havens

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) identifies three key factors in considering whether a jurisdiction is a tax haven:[18]

  1. No or only nominal taxes. Tax havens impose no or only nominal taxes (generally or in special circumstances) and offer themselves, or are perceived to offer themselves, as a place to be used by non-residents to escape high taxes in their country of residence.

However the OECD found that its definition caught certain aspects of its members' tax systems (most developed countries have low or zero taxes for certain favoured groups). Its later work has therefore focused on the single aspect of information exchange. This is generally thought to be an inadequate definition of a tax haven, but is politically expedient because it includes the small tax havens (with little power in the international political arena) but exempts the powerful countries with tax haven aspects such as the USA and UK.[19]

In deciding whether or not a jurisdiction is a tax haven, the first factor to look at is whether there are no or nominal taxes. If this is the case, the other two factors – whether or not there is an exchange of information and transparency – must be analysed. Having no or nominal taxes is not sufficient, by itself, to characterise a jurisdiction as a tax haven. The OECD recognises that every jurisdiction has a right to determine whether to impose direct taxes and, if so, to determine the appropriate tax rate.


To avoid tax competition, many high tax jurisdictions have enacted legislation to counter the tax sheltering potential of tax havens. Generally, such legislation tends to operate in one of five ways:

  1. attributing the income and gains of the company or trust in the tax haven to a taxpayer in the high-tax jurisdiction on an arising basis. Controlled Foreign Corporation legislation is probably the best example of this.
  2. transfer pricing rules, standardisation of which has been greatly helped by the promulgation of OECD guidelines.
  3. restrictions on deductibility, or imposition of a withholding tax when payments are made to offshore recipients.
  4. taxation of receipts from the entity in the tax haven, sometimes enhanced by notional interest to reflect the element of deferred payment. The EU withholding tax is probably the best example of this.
  5. exit charges, or taxing of unrealised capital gains when an individual, trust or company emigrates.

However, many jurisdictions employ blunter rules. For example, in France securities regulations are such that it is not possible to have a public bond issue through a company incorporated in a tax haven.[20]

Also becoming increasingly popular is "forced disclosure" of tax mitigation schemes. Broadly, these involve the revenue authorities compelling tax advisors to reveal details of the scheme, so that the loopholes can be closed during the following tax year, usually by one of the five methods indicated above.[21] Although not specifically aimed at tax havens, given that so many tax mitigation schemes involve the use of offshore structures, the effect is much the same.

The United States has entered into Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA) with a number of tax havens.[22]


There are several reasons for a nation to become a tax haven. Some nations may find they do not need to charge as much as some industrialised countries in order for them to be earning sufficient income for their annual budgets. Some may offer a lower tax rate to larger corporations, in exchange for the companies locating a division of their parent company in the host country and employing some of the local population. Other domiciles find this is a way to encourage conglomerates from industrialised nations to transfer needed skills to the local population. Still yet, some countries simply find it costly to compete in many other sectors with industrialised nations and have found a low tax rate mixed with a little self-promotion can go a long way to attracting foreign companies.

Many industrialised countries claim that tax havens act unfairly by reducing tax revenue which would otherwise be theirs. Various pressure groups also claim that money launderers also use tax havens extensively,[23] although extensive financial and KYC regulations in tax havens can actually make money laundering more difficult than in large onshore financial centers with significantly higher volumes of transactions, such as New York City or London.[24] In 2000 the Financial Action Task Force published what came to be known as the "FATF Blacklist" of countries which were perceived to be uncooperative in relation to money laundering; although several tax havens have appeared on the list from time to time (including key jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, Bahamas and Liechtenstein), no offshore jurisdictions appear on the list at this time.


See also: List of offshore financial centres., Tax rates around the worldThe U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research has suggested that roughly 15% of countries in the world are tax havens, that these countries tend to be small and affluent, and that better governed and regulated countries are more likely to become tax havens, and are more likely to be successful if they become tax havens.[25]

  • Andorra. No personal income tax.
  • Anguilla - A British Overseas Territory and offshore banking centre
  • Anjouan - offshore centre started in 2005
  • Antigua and Barbuda
  • Aruba
  • Barbados - A 'Low-tax regime' not 'Tax haven'.[26] [27] [28] - The government of Barbados sent off a high level note to members of the United States Congress recently in protest of the label "Tax Haven" stating it has the potential to undermine or override the Barbados/United States double taxation agreement.[29]
  • Belize No capital gains tax.
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina - 10% corporate income tax, 10% income tax, 10% capital gain tax
  • Campione d'Italia an Italian enclave within Switzerland
  • Cayman Islands No capital gains tax.
  • Cook Islands
  • Delaware: A state of the USA which has a significantly low income tax levels (below 6%) and provides tax incentives to US corporations (currently having around 50% of US PLCs registered there) it also has partnership taxation laws which make it favourable to non-US entities, typically allowing taxation at 0% where the partners are registered in non-US jurisdictions.
  • Guernsey thought to be a UK tax haven as of March 2009.

  • Gibraltar ceased to be considered a tax haven after 30 June 2006. No new Exempt Company certificates are being issued from that date. All previous Exempt Company certificates will be ineffective from 2010
  • Hong Kong's tax rates are low (17%) enough that it can be considered a tax haven. Hong Kong does not levy tax on capital gain as well. [30]
  • Ireland did not tax the foreign income of authors and artists until 2006. Corporation tax is only 10% or 12.5%. Income not remitted to Ireland by Irish residents not-domiciled in either Ireland or the UK can escape taxation Ireland.
  • Labuan, a Malaysian island off Borneo
  • Liechtenstein
  • Luxembourg
  • Macau
  • Malta - Shareholders of certain companies pay less than 5% tax and dividend income where the company holds less than 1% of equity is usually taxed at 0%.
  • Macedonia - corporate taxes 10%, income taxes 10%, tax on reinvestment profit 0%
  • Monaco does not levy a personal income tax.
  • Nauru - No taxes. Only tax in country is an airport departure tax.
  • Nevis
  • Norfolk Island - no personal income tax.
  • Russia - 13% income tax
  • Samoa
  • San Marino
  • Sark
  • Seychelles
  • Singapore: foreign law agencies complain about lack of cooperation and responsiveness.[33]
  • St Kitts and Nevis
  • St Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Switzerland is a tax haven for foreigners who become resident after negotiating the amount of their income subject to taxation with the canton in which they intend to live. Typically taxable income is assumed to be five times the accommodation rental paid. French-speaking Vaud is the most popular canton for this scheme, thus it is usually called "Forfait fiscale". For businesses, the canton of Zug is popular, with over 6000 holding companies.
  • UK is a tax haven for UK residents of foreign domicile who pay a flat levy of £30,000 on their non-UK income.
  • Some states within the United States, particularly Delaware, offer incentives for businesses to locate there. Many banks and other financial companies are domiciled in the state of Delaware even though Delaware is one of the smallest states in the United States. Nevada and Wyoming are particularly well known for not having any state income tax or corporation tax. US-banks also offer a wide range of offshore private banking to south american customers.
  • Uruguay - used to have no personal income tax. However, the current government decided to introduce income tax as of 2007.
  • United Arab Emirates for individuals and Jebel Ali Free Zone for companies.



While incomplete, and with the limitations discussed below, the available statistics nonetheless indicate that offshore banking is a very sizeable activity. IMF calculations based on BIS data suggest that for selected OFCs (Offshore Financial Centres), on balance sheet OFC cross-border assets reached a level of US$4.6 trillion at end-June 1999 (about 50 percent of total cross-border assets), of which US$0.9 trillion in the Caribbean, US$1 trillion in Asia, and most of the remaining US$2.7 trillion accounted for by the IFCs (International Financial Centers), namely London, the U.S. IBFs, and the JOM (Japanese Offshore Market).[35]

Tax Justice Network, an anti-tax haven pressure group, suggests that global tax revenue lost to tax havens exceeds US$255 billion per year, although those figures are not widely accepted. Estimates by the OECD suggest that by 2007 capital held offshore amounts to somewhere between US$5 trillion and US$7 trillion, making up approximately 6-8% of total global investments under management. Of this, approximately US$1.4 trillion is estimate to be held in the Cayman Islands alone.[36]

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity disputes claims about foregone tax revenue. Academic researchers also have found that tax havens actually boost prosperity in neighboring jurisdictions by creating tax-efficient platforms for economic activity - much of which would not occur if subject to onerous taxes if controlled by a domestic entity. Some support for this is found in academic studies which suggests that the tax elasticity of investment is approximately -0.6.[37]

A 2006 academic paper indicated that: "in 1999, 59% of U.S. firms with significant foreign operations had affiliates in tax haven countries",[38] although they did not define "significant" for this purpose.

A January 2009 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said that the GAO had determined that 83 of the 100 largest U.S. publicly traded corporations and 63 of the 100 largest contractors for the U.S. federal government were maintaining subsidiaries in countries generally considered havens for avoiding taxes. The GAO did not review the companies' transactions to independently verify that the subsidiaries helped the companies reduce their tax burden, but said only that historically the purpose of such subsidiaries is to cut tax costs. [39]

Modern developments

Proposed German legislation

In January 2009, Peer Steinbrück, the German financial minister, announced that the fiscal laws are planned to be amended. New regulations would disallow that payments to companies in certain countries that shield money from disclosure rules be declared as operative expenses. The effect of this would make banking in such states unattractive and expensive.[40]

Liechtenstein banking scandal

See main article: 2008 Liechtenstein tax affair.

In February 2008 Germany announced that it had paid €4.2 million to Heinrich Kieber,[41] a former data archivist of LGT Treuhand, a Liechtenstein bank, for a list of 1,250 customers of the bank and their accounts details. Investigations and arrests followed relating to charges of illegal tax evasion. The German authorities shared the data with U.S. tax authorities, but the British government paid a further ₤100,000 for the same data.[42] Other governments, notably Denmark and Sweden, refused to pay for the information regarding it as stolen property.[43] The Liechtenstein authorities subsequently accused the German authorities of espionage.[44]

However, regardless of whether unlawful tax evasion was being engaged in, the incident has fuelled the perception amongst European governments and press that tax havens provide facilities shrouded in secrecy designed to facilitate unlawful tax evasion, rather than legitimate tax planning and legal tax mitigation schemes. This in turn has led to a call for "crackdowns" on tax havens.[45] Whether the calls for such a crackdown are mere posturing or lead to more definitive activity by mainstream economies to restrict access to tax havens is yet to be seen. No definitive announcements or proposals have yet been made by the European Union or governments of the member states.

Whether or not unlawful tax avoidance was going on, Liechtenstein's reputation has inevitably been damaged, as customers expect their banks, whether onshore or offshore, to protect their data against unauthorised disclosure.


Barack Obama


See also

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. [Doggart, Caroline]
  2. The Truth About Tax Havens - retrieved 28 December 2007
  3. Truth About Tax Havens - retrieved 28 December 2007
  4. Web site: International Taxation: Large U.S. Corporations and Federal Contractors with Subsidiaries in Jurisdictions Listed as Tax Havens or Financial Privacy Jurisdictions GAO:GAO-09-157. Government Accountability Office. December 18 2008. 2009-01-21.
  5. Web site: Foreign Policy: Why Tax Havens Are a Blessing. Cato Institute. March 2008. 2009-01-21.
  6. "[T]he tax haven is a creature of the twentieth century, and began to be used extensively because of the high levels of tax which prevailed after the First World War" at para 26.1, Tolley's International Tax Planning (2002), ISBN 0754513394
  7. See generally Introduction to Tolley's International Initiatives Affecting Financial Havens (2001), ISBN 0-406-94264-1
  8. The Personen-und Gesellschaftsrecht of 20 January 1926
  9. Tolley's Tax Havens (2000), ISBN 0754504719
  10. A usage which was still being echoed to some degree in the special report of The Economist in 1990, Tax Havens and their uses, ISBN 0 85058 292 X, Special Report No. 1191. The report helpful includes indications of quality of life in various tax havens which future tax exiles may wish to consider.
  11. For example a double taxation treaty still exists between Barbados and Japan, and another between Cyprus and Russia. Mauritius has a double taxation treaty with India that is used for tax mitigation, although India is seeking to renegotiate the treaty, India to push for change in tax treaty with Mauritius
  12. The best examples of this were probably Gibraltar and the British Virgin Islands.
  13. According to [ The CIA World factbook] tax havens make up 7 of top 12 countries in world (including the top 3) for highest GDP per capita (not counting Ireland as a tax haven for these purposes). In the case of Caribbean and African tax havens, this is all the more stark for the poverty nearby. For example, the two countries closest to Cayman in geographical terms are Jamaica and Cuba.
  14. Web site: Election Under Fire. Time Magazine. 1976-05-17. 2006-12-23.
  15. Tolley's Offshore Service (2006), ISBN 1-405-71568-5
  16. This is a simplistic example; in most sophisticated tax codes there are extensive provisions for catching "gifts" (such as a declaration of trust) made for a specified time preceding death.
  17. It has been estimated over 75% of the world's hedge funds (probably the riskiest form of collective investment vehicle) are domiciled in the Cayman Islands, with nearly US$1.1 Trillion AUM - Institutional Investor, 15 May 2006, although statistics in the Hedge Fund industry are notoriously speculative.
  18.,3343,en_2649_37427_30575447_1_1_1_37427,00.htmlTax Haven Criteria - retrieved 26 Feb 2008
  19. Hay, Towards a level playing field - regulating corporate vehicles in cross border transactions,
  20. Companies incorporated in tax havens are often used as bond issuing vehicles in securitisations for tax reasons.
  21. The United Kingdom is one country that has strict forced disclosure rules. -
  23. Such as ATTAC and the Tax Justice Network. See for example: Offshore watch
  24. See for example the views expressed in The Guardian in 2001.
  25. Working paper 12802, The paper implicitly adopts the "smaller" tax haven approach, ie. disregarding larger countries which have either low taxes rates (for example, Russia), or systems of taxation which permit them to be used to structure tax avoidance schemes (for example, the United Kingdom). It also excludes non-sovereign tax havens (for example, Delaware or Labuan).
  26. Study shows Barbados is good for Canadian economy
  27. Barbados and the OECD Press Release
  29. Barbados fights (Tax Haven) label
  32. Netherlands Antilles and Isle of Man to explore ways to combat arbitrary 'tax haven' listing
  33. Houlder V, Peel M. Harbours of resentment. Financial Times December 1, 2008, p.11
  34.,25197,23652068-2702,00.html "Vanuatu to ditch tax haven"
  35. "Offshore Financial Centers"
  36. "Places in the sun
  37. Hines, Lessons from behavioral responses to international taxation, (1999) 52 National Tax Journal, pp. 305-322
  38. Desai, Foley and Hines, "The demand for tax haven operations", Journal of Public Economics 90 (2006), page 514.
  39. News: Report Finds Major U.S. Companies Have Offshore Tax Havens. Carol D. Leonnig. Washington Post. January 16, 2009.
  40. Web site: Steinbrück forciert Kampf gegen Steuerparadiese. Der Spiegel. 17-01-2009. 17-01-2009. German.
  41. Mr Kieber seems to be an unlikely hero for law enforcement authorities. A convicted fraudster, reports indicate that after initially stealing the information, he blackmailed the Liechtenstein authorities into reducing and dropping criminal charges against him relating to property fraud in Spain. However, before returning the disks he made copies of which, which he later sold to foreign governments after he left the country. Further reports indicate that he now lives under a new name in Australia.,1518,537640,00.html
  42. The Guardian, 2 March 2008
  43. [Denmark]
  44. The Daily Telegraph, 26 February 2008
  45. Accountancy Age, 3 March 2008