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What are the tax havens around, beside Seychelles, Belize and Panama?

tax-haven

tax-haven

Corporate Services
Business Angel
May 26, 2009
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#1
So which tax haven can we add to the list? I have been considering what other offshore jurisdiction may be useful for my offshore business structuring.


So far I can see that the following offshore jurisdictions are under the term tax haven:



But according to the many discussion around I have learned there are many more, please input here.


For those who do not know what a tax haven is I put a link before the list above, I would also be interested in knowing of what the best and legal way is for tax avoidance, makes sense right ? :D Tax avoidance and tax evasion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Tax Havens are a legal item to use in order to reduce tax, but is it also allowed to be exempted from tax if you don't live the same place more than 6 months in a row?
 
#2
A few other jurisdictions which are also used to be tax havens are Channel Islands, Switzerland (not that good any longer) Isle of Man.


For a low tax jurisdiction we can ofcourse recommend Cyprus which has the lowest tax in the EU and lots of possibilities....
 
#3
I guess for US citizens this is a big no go or they will have to leave the country Abusive Offshore Tax Avoidance Schemes - Talking Points also rumours are going that they are putting big pressure on the different tax havens around..
 
#4
I guess US and Austrians should watch this VID [video=youtube;aTfZADGK6TY]

- lol
Indeed they are putting some presure on the different tax havens but their will always be a way to avoid them, it depends on how deep your pockets are and how clever you are... you should not doing it like Madoff In depth coverage of Madoff scandal from the Financial Times :D
 
#6
Some more place would be:


Bahamas, they are famous for more than just its beaches. The Bahamas don't levy personal income tax or tax on capital gains...actually they don't have any tax only on property and import...


Why donw we live there all, nice beaches no tax, could be great.


Cayman IslandsAlso a country / offshore jurisdiction which has been known for its capital gains in the area of Investments.


Isle of Man, think it was already mentioned but they have no capital tax, corporate tax they do have personal tax but sure you can minimize that too. :P
 
#7
For the geView attachment 42neral interest I bought this book it helped me alot for my planning.You can get it herehmmm, not sure what happend with the picture will try again....

the-best-tax-have.webp

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#8
Here we go, now because the US citizens can't make use of the different tax havens in the world they claim they are a Tax Haven - lol, just watch this Video.


Anyone from the US with input to this would be great..


[video=youtube;6EA3UBaNwMI]In depth coverage of Madoff scandal from the Financial Times
 
#9
What people could ask them self, are tax havens responsible for the world economics crisis and the proliferating high risk money instruments?


My answer is a BIG no, the banks are.... what do you think?
 
#10
You may be right Admin, I'm sure that if the authorites in the different countries had taken action against the biggest scammer also mentioned above they could have rest in piece, tax havens are just paying the price now, what I would assume is that once in a while when the world are over this crisis the focus will vanish from the tax havens.
 
#11
I guess soon the Isle of Man which is part of theBritish Economy the live and status as an tax haven : Tax Research UK The Isle of Man is hurting - and so it should

This is absoluttely absurd. Tax abuses sponsored by the Isle of Man were costing the UK at least £1.5 billion a year until the VAT subsidy was withdrawn. That means they are still having impact way beyond the total government income in the Isle of Man.
If the Isle of Man wants to stop hurting stop being a tax haven. The option is there’s to take. But when you set out to undermine the government of another state - and that is what the Isle of Man conciously set out to do - don’t expect any sympathy in return.
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#12
This is a one of a cool thread, have been looking for this information for some time now, not that much they I don't know the many Tax Havens, but I would really hope to find some relevant stuff which I just did...


Shouldn't this thread /forum/f5/tax-havens-2010-what-options-left-9636/ not have been merged with this one?


I see that India is also trying to crack down on tax havens like the Bermuda tax haven now...

'India gets leg into Bermuda tax havens'
What has been India’s role in the counter-attack against tax havens?


India, which is both a member of the Global Forum’s Steering Group and a vice-chair of its Peer Review Group, has played an active role to ensure that high standards of transparency and exchange of information are in place throughout the world to prevent tax evasion from depriving governments of resources for development.


What came out of the New Delhi meeting?


The Steering Group, which guides the work of the Global Forum, considered the core documents required to launch the peer review process. It also examined the progress of the Global Forum on the mandate given to it by the G-20 in November 2009. Besides OECD, the meeting, chaired by Australia, was attended by the US, Japan, China, the UK, Germany, France, South Africa, Brazil, South Africa, Singapore. Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.


What is the state of play in India regarding TIEAs?


India has been at the centre of the Global Forum’s work to build the peer review process. Your finance minister, in his welcome message to the Steering Group, committed to the Global Forum’s work and our ability to capture the needs of the developing countries. Indeed, as he said, tax plays a crucial role in helping developing countries mobilise their domestic resources and enforcing high standards of transparency. Exchange of information will be an important part of this strategy.


How far has India progressed on TIEAs?


I was informed that India has concluded its first TIEA complying with OECD standards. We understand that the announcement of this first agreement with Bermuda is now just a matter of days. We have been told that one more TIEA is to follow soon.


Bermuda accounts for a significant part of foreign direct investment into India. Some banking investments there have been cited as controversial.


A tax information exchange agreement will give OECD-mandated exchange to Indian tax authorities and their requests in cases of special inquiries will be better equipped to tackle tax evasion.


Critics argue that one agreement at a time allows evaders all the time in the world to move their money.


Three hundred such agreements have been signed in the last one year. That’s a huge movement from where we were. OECD believes that the era of banking secrecy has begun to end. India, too, will benefit when a web of such treaties is available.


What about results?


Expect the first results by the year-end.


But the Swiss decision to walk off on the treaty with France...


We refuse to be discouraged by this.


How important is the role of non-OECD countries?


It is encouraging to see large developing economies like China, India, South Africa, and Argentina making progress. Developing countries will play a lead role in this exciting development that potentially unleashes the incentive for honest people to pay taxes.


But the “upper club” can simply move its money around.


Yes, the “upper club” has many options to move around, but as more and more jurisdictions enter into these agreements, very few out are choosing to remain ostracised.


How can India maximize benefits from TIEAs?


We are impressed by the investments being made by India in upgrading its revenue staffing and resourcing to reap the benefits of the OECD gold standards. We also expect that India will use the provisions to upgrade its double taxation avoidance agreements, specially those where a review otherwise is potentially difficult.


What next?


The next priorities are speeding up the negotiation process, enhancing the engagement of developing countries and implementation of the agreements. These will start happening when the peer review process starts.
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#13
They are really tightening the rules towards tax payers and offshore businesses….. I don’t hope any of you have something to hide; else the advice below may be of high importance for you, make legal structures when planning to go offshore, pay the very reduced tax you have to pay and forget try hiding hide your fortune from the tax authorities, I believe it will end up in a mess if you are not careful, important to notice is also that we only hear of the guys that got busted but not of them which successfully accomplished a great offshore structure to avoid any tax.

Offshore tax dodgers are to face even bigger fines from 2011 it has been announced – therefore if you have undeclared assets offshore, perhaps you should be speaking to an accountant about declaring your ‘crime’ to the Treasury quickly before January the 4th 2010.
The new fines will be up to a ceiling of 200% of the unpaid tax amount – and the legislation behind the move will come into being next year following the Budget, and be brought into effect by 2011. As we always repeat, ignorance is no excuse when it comes to taxation – you have to be aware of your own liabilities and responsibilities and fulfil your obligations. But if you’re a British tax payer and you’ve avoided taxes…now is a good time to get your affairs in order.
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#14
Also here I found it very useful what already has been posted but want to make some comments too.....


There may be salvation from being plucked by the greedy hand of state, and it comes in the shape of tax competition. Tax competition is when state regimes pursue an approach of lowering taxes with the desire to urge the flow of investments into their country or to make sure that monetary resources don't leave from their jurisdiction. If you've got a business or you are merely a regular employee in a high-tax country, you can certainly save some money by paying less tax or occasionally none whatsoever by exploiting so called tax havens.


Tax refuge is outlined by wikipedia as the existence of a composite tax structure established intentionally to use, and exploit, an international requirement for opportunities to take part in tax avoidance. put simply tax havens are places where foreigners can house their assets, do business and pay little taxes. First I should put out a proviso to those who are thinking, hey this is great, I am able to just move all my business dealings to a tax refuge country and I'm able to avoid being taxed by my regime.


Not so fast! It is not quite that easy to simple for some individuals to circumvent the long reach of the tax man If as an example you are living in a land that levies taxes on worldwide earnings then a ton of what I'm going to introduce to you in this post isn't going to be of that much use to you ; at least not on a private tax level.


Even if you want to run an offshore business you may run into unpleasant anti controlled foreign concern ( CFC ) laws. 2 countries that quickly come to my mind which tax the global revenue of their voters and firms are : the US & Canada. Most states evaluate taxes based mostly on residency, not citizenship. For Americans there isn't any escaping the long arm of the IRS.

Americans living outside the country are exempt on their first $82,400 of foreign earned income, but the most recent 2006 tax cuts boosted taxes by up to 20 percent for expatriates and made it possible for the IRS to dip into foreign retirement accounts for the first time. It is the highest such increase in 30 years, and ex-pats pay it on top of their host country taxes.
For Americans abroad, the only way to fully take advantage of tax havens is to renounce American citizenship, which over 500 people, almost all of very high net worth, did last year.
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If you live in any of those nations I bet I haven't got to tell you why it could be a great idea take a look into some legal method of assuaging your tax burden.


Maybe looking into tax havens is good for you. It actually depends on your unique circumstances and finance wants and goals. You must definitely talk with a tax expert as well as a pro in the offshore finance arena before you embark on this journey. your journey a touch less complicated by doing a little bit of research for you. I'm going to go thru a listing of well-liked tax refuge states and outline the benefits and disadvantages. This should at least give you a little bit of a direction as to where you want to focus your research on. Yes, I am doing advocate that you do some in-depth research before you even seriously consider attempting to outwit the tax man.


For the sake of abruptness I cannot review each tax sanctuary in the world, so instead I'll concentrate on some of the more preferred ones. I'm going to avoid tax havens states that have so called sold out and given into too much into the pressures of the high-tax states to limit you privacy and financial liberty. So without further ado, here are the nations in all of their tax free glory.


Belize Pros :

  • No tax on worldwide earned earnings for IBC
  • the sole English-speaking country in South America
  • reasonable IBC incorporation charges : Approximately EUR 995 to include with continuing costs of about EUR 900 a year.
  • just one Investor is necessary. There's no official record of the Stockholder.


IBCs need just one Director who might be an establishment, and needn't be resident in the country. Conferences of Stockholders and / or Directors may be held in any country, at any point and they may attend conferences by stand in. No need to file accounts or to have accounts checked. Public filing restricted to certificate of incorporation, memo and articles of organisation, registered office and name and address of registered agent


CONS: Untrustworthy electricity as well as phone and net services. This wouldn't be to much of a difficulty if all that you need is an IBC. However if you plan to open a checking account in Belize I could definitely see this becoming quite a pain.

  • Rather debatable political stability. They'd a regime change lately and the new regime didn't respect commercial citizenships and passports of the prior regime.
  • This is unquestionably not something you would like to hear. it is yet to be seen how things will turn out.


Seychelles


Seychelles Pros :

  • An International Company is exempted from local taxation
  • there's no duty to file financial statements, but a company must keep records to reflect its fiscal position.
  • A Seychelles IBC needn't designate a company secretary, while it is traditional to do so.


The secretary might be a natural person or body company, be of any nationality and needn't be resident in the Seychelles. Also the minimum number of stockholders is one four ) Same day incorporation. Five ) There are no exchange controls. Six ) Bearer share companies are available. Cons :

  • Seychelles IBCs are routinely incorporated with an authorized share capital of US five thousand with par value. This being the maximum for the minimum licence costs. The authorized share capital might be voiced in any currency. The minimum issued capital is either one share of no par price or one share of par value.
  • Seychelles Tax Info Sharing Agreements they're concerned in some 20 such agreements. They'll exchange info in criminal matter in relation to cash including those associated with taxation, customs duty or trade price list. This doesn't talk to well for those engaged with privacy.
  • Moderately poor IT and telecomms services.
 
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#15
I'm suprised no one has mentioned Costa Rica and UAE as some of the tax havens people register offshore companies, does anyone heard of the changes that Costa Rica is undergoing, read below?

It's been nearly a year since Costa Rica was identified as a so-called tax haven due to outdated legislation that makes exchange of information on suspected tax evaders complicated and time-consuming. The Central American country was hit with another slap in mid-February when France announced it would levy high sanctions on interest and dividends earned in the country. “Costa Rica is recognized in the world as a haven for peace, a haven for ecological tourism, a haven for the respect of human rights; but under no circumstance, can we or do we want to run the risk that Costa Rica is perceived as a tax haven,” said Rodrigo Arias, minister of the presidency, at the Friday morning forum.
The worldwide recession has motivated developed countries to clamp down on suspected tax evaders, looking for additional income for cash-strapped budgets. With the participation of countries around the world, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD ) drafted an international standard for the exchange of tax information and got dozens of countries to sign on to it.


"We've made more progress in 10 months than we have in 10 years," said Pascal Saint-Amans, head of the international cooperation and tax competition division of OECD. “The standard for the exchange of tax information is now almost universally accepted.... There are no more safe places to hide money to avoid paying taxes.”


Costa Rica has dragged its feet in the process of subscribing to international tax standards, but Finance Minister Jenny Phillips has pledged her commitment to meet OECD demands. In order to make it off the list of havens, Costa Rica must sign information sharing agreements with 12 countries (it has one now and nine pending) and adopt new national legislation.


Phillips said the legislation has been drafted and is now before the Legislative Assembly. Though she said she will push for legislators to pass it before they leave office in May, she also recognizes the tight timeframe.


“Two months is very short in order to pass a reform like this one,” she said. “But after hearing what was said today(Costa Rica could face more sanctions), … Today it's France, tomorrow it could be another country... and some of the sanctions could come from international organizations such as the World Bank.”
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#16
Even if Costa Rica president say so it will take at least 10 to 15 years before they have signed all the TIERS required, this has been seen many times also by Uruguay who signed in 2003 (I can't remember exact year) and still have not signed them all, the same applies for many of the offshore countries around.
 
#17
second that, it will take a long time before CR will be recognized as an legit and "white Zone" jurisdiction, It would be to easy to believe they will change everything within a year or so, too much money is put on hte table for that to happend.
 
#18
St. Kits and Nevis/Bahamas are signing their 10th TIERS now, that means soon they will be recognized as a legit country / island from where business is conducted, as I understand if they sign 12 Tax information exchange agreements they are getting on the OECD whitelist, so that means in a few years I will be able to run a legit business in the Bahamas and no one will doubt why it is placed there, or not?
 
#19
The last Tax havens on the OECD grey list!


An overview of the OECD remaining Grey Listed Tax Havens


Andorra


Until today made 10 Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIERS) and are missing 2


Anguilla


Until today made 11 TIERS and are missing only 1


Bahamas


Until today made 10 TIERS and are missing 2


Belize


Until today made 0 TIERS and are missing 12


Cooks Islands


Until today made 11 TIERS and are missing 1


Dominica


Until today made 1 TIERS and are missing 11


Granada


Until today made 1 TIERS and are missing 11


Liberia


Until today made 0 TIERS and are missing 12


Niue


Until today made 0 TIERS and are missing 12


Panama


Until today made 0 TIERS and are missing 12


Saint Kitts and Nevis


Until today made 8 TIERS and are missing 4


St. Vincent


Until today made 7 TIERS and are missing 5


Vanuatu


Until today made 0 TIERS and are missing 12


Brunei


Until today made 8 TIERS and are missing 4


Costa Rica


Until Today made 1 TIERS and are missing 11


Guatemala


Until today made 0 TIERS and are missing 12


Malaysia


Until today made 5 TIERS and are missing 8


Philippines


Until today made 0 TIERS and are missing 12


Uruguay


Until today made 3 TIERS and are missing 9


What this list means that even if everyone is screaming about the different tax havens around increasing the number of TIERS then it will take ages before they will be taken off the Grey List, some of the countries started to sign TIERS in 2000 and 2003 and they are still not come any further, which in my opinion is because there is too much money and political power behind these countries to just sign all 12 TIERS and move off the Grey list.


What one will do is to check the OECDS Grey list before incorporating a company there, if your country has an tax information exchange agreement with the tax haven you are looking into, forget it and move on, there are plenty of options.


My personal favorite is still the Seychelles, they didn’t sign a single TIERS and don’t even considering to do so, no they improve the services and possibilities available in the Seychelles Tax Haven to attract more money to the Island. The Seychelles combined with maybe Cyprus, Panama and or Belize may be a great way to avoid any tax, keep privacy and stay out of the spotlight of the different instances. :cool:
 
#20
To sum up, the tax havens to go with today and which are safe are:


Philippines


Until today made 0 TIERS and are missing 12


Vanuatu


Until today made 0 TIERS and are missing 12


Liberia


Until today made 0 TIERS and are missing 12


Niue


Until today made 0 TIERS and are missing 12


Belize


Until today made 0 TIERS and are missing 12


Seychelles


Until todat made 0 TIERS and are missing 12 but they even not boughter!


In my opnion it is the Seychelles, not because I have any special preferance to this, but isolated looking at the TIERS and where the other offshore countries are located.
 
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