The Tax Haven

Résumé du document

The history of the tax havens is parallel to that of taxation. In fact, 2000 years ago, the first Greek storekeepers sent emissaries to some harbors to exchange the merchandise secretly with the buyer, and so, avoid the harbor taxes. But it was during the 30's and the glorious thirty that the tax havens fully extended until today. The report published by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) in 1987 about international taxation, stated that "there isn't any single benchmark, clear and objective allowing identifying a country as a tax haven. However, a tax haven is generally a place where certain taxes are levied at a low rate or not at all in comparison with what the speaker indentifies as "normal". Thus, the notion of tax haven can only exist in comparison with other countries where the taxes are at a higher rate.

Extraits

[...] It's very difficult to fight the sovereignty and to force them to fight against Tax Havens. The opaqueness of Tax Havens Obtain information about Tax havens is very difficult: - Countries which are Tax havens don't want to loose the money of this aspect of his economy and so refuse to give any kind of information's and they appeal to their laws to no say anything. - In order to not say anything, banks which are in Tax Havens call to the bank confidentiality which is the bank obligation to not give information about their clients to anybody. [...]

[...] But, the inconvenience of GAFI is that he doesn't have an executive power and so his action is no very influent. IV) Obstacles to fight against Tax havens The sovereignty of each countries: Countries which are Tax Havens have legislation witch damage the global economy. But, how can command to theses countries to change their legislation in order to have the same rules than us? The WTO (World Trade Organization) has enacted rules against Tax Havens and it's necessary to respect this rules in order to be a member of the organization. [...]

[...] The Tax Haven Introduction about the notion of tax haven The history of the tax havens is parallel to the one of the taxation. In fact years ago, the first Greek storekeepers send emissaries in some harbors with the buyer to exchange the merchandise secretly, and so, avoid the harbor taxes. But it was during the 30's and the glorious thirty that the tax havens fully extended until today. The notion of tax haven An attempt of definition: The report written by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) in 1987 about the international taxation said firstly that “there isn't any single benchmark, clear and objective allowing identifying a country as a tax haven. [...]

[...] Benchmarks allowing to identify a tax haven The tax haven interest isn't only the fiscal qualities. The Gordon report from the American fiscal administration and the works of OECD identify some common characteristics to a large part of the tax havens: - Low rate or lack of taxes for the public expenditure - Economic and political stability - Liberty of the exchange rate with specie. - Commercial secret and banking secret sure. - Very develop financial field in comparison with the country's size. [...]

[...] Some examples of tax havens Bahamas, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Malta, Switzerland. Luxembourg. II) The stakes of tax havens There are a lot of stakes: we can identify four of them like: - The fiscal competition - The economic competition (for the companies of different countries) - The fight toward the laundering and the financing of criminal organization. - The financial international system stability. III) The fight against Tax Havens The fight against the tax avoidance The article 238 A of the CGI institues a presumption of “abnormality” about some kind of transfers or payment witch are in the direction of Tax havens. [...]