In a move to reduce bank secrecy and fight international tax evasion, about 100 tax jurisdictions have so far committed to implement a new standard on the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEoI). ...This paper examines the quantitative consequences of the AEoI for an onshore country, using a neoclassical model with an offshore financial center. Our main findings are (i) the AEoI increases government revenues but reduces welfare; (ii) welfare improves when using the AEoI revenues to reduce tax pressure or when including household wealth inequality; (iii) government revenues increase further when accounting for a disclosure penalty cost. These results depend on the general equilibrium effects, absent from earlier papers on offshore financial centers.
There is general consensus that tax havens have long played a major role in the evolution of the capitalist system on a global scale. There is also no doubt that Switzerland is one of the first, if ...not the first, tax haven to have emerged, as well as one of the most important in the world. However, knowledge and understanding of the history, particularly the distant past, of tax havens remains lacking, despite the considerable volume of literature devoted to them. Therefore, this article attempts to make two innovative contributions. The first is an attempt to explain the emergence of the Swiss tax haven, by analyzing the processes and factors whose intertwining led to its emergence. It thus improves the general understanding of the genesis of tax havens at an international level. The second contribution is to show that already on the eve of World War I, the Swiss Confederation possessed the necessary characteristics for a tax haven.
Money laundering through banks in Dubai Teichmann, Fabian Maximilian; Falker, Marie-Christin
Journal of financial regulation and compliance,
07/2020, Letnik:
28, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how illegally obtained funds from Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland are laundered through the banking system in Dubai.
...Design/methodology/approach
The study is conducted using a qualitative content analysis of 60 semi-structured expert interviews with both criminals and money laundering prevention experts, and a quantitative survey of 200 financial sector compliance officers.
Findings
Some banks in Dubai are highly suitable for all stages of the money laundering process. However, although certain banks have weak compliance mechanisms, others act in an exemplary manner.
Research limitations/implications
The qualitative findings are based on semi-structured interviews and are limited to the 60 interviewees’ perspectives.
Practical implications
Identification of gaps in anti-money laundering mechanisms provides compliance officers, law enforcement agencies and legislators with valuable insights into how money laundering criminals operate.
Originality/value
The existing literature focuses mainly on organizations and the methods they use to combat money laundering. This paper outlines how money launderers operate to avoid detection. Authentic experiences are illustrated. The reader is provided with valuable insights into the minds of money launderers. Both lawful and criminal perspectives are taken into account.
The origins of the world-wide distributed Offshore Financial Centers are related to the surge of the Eurocurrency markets during the 1950s and 1960s. After a first stage of rapid expansion, many of ...those OFCs reached a consolidation stage and remained, even after most of the original drivers for their creation were no longer present. Their insertion as part of the complex mechanisms of the global financial markets is driven by the high skilled financial services as well as the usually benign fiscal treatment the host countries give to multinational institutions established in their territory. As a consequence of the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis, the more advanced nations have formed a new group called the G20, with the aim to improve the coordination of different dimensions of the international economic environment. In its first reunions the G20 have focused in discussing the changes that are needed at the level of the financial architecture and the regulations that apply to international financial markets, with the intention to minimize the probability of another episode of financial crisis in the future. The changes that are likely to follow the G20 initiatives will change the operating conditions and affect the competitive advantages of the OFCs, but will also represent new opportunities for business. This work briefly explores the historical background of the OFCs phenomenon, analyzes its current situation and discusses its likely future trends, based on the OFCs’ most recent environmental changes.
Having created the internal market of the EU the companies, which work in the internal market of the EU, met the new challenges in the sphere of planning of taxes. Here the redistribution of the ...companies, which work in offshore centers, took place subject to the markets of export. Before founding an offshore company it is very important to choose an offshore center (considering its specialization) according to wish of the founder of the offshore company. Some jurisdictions are traditionally regarded as jurisdictions of the holding, others are recommended to international trade firms, banks, trust, insurance companies (for example, for captive insurance, i.e. insurance inside of the company or to reinsurance companies).
Tax Havens and Criminology Deneault, Alain
Global crime,
20/8/1/, Letnik:
8, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
For more then thirty years, "tax havens" have allowed major players form the political and financial spheres, as well as from the criminal one, to act in a "sovereign" way, that is to say, in a ...determinant way, so that their decisions become decisive in the historical course. "Offshore sovereignty" designates the opportunities that actors off all stripes have in the offshore centres, legal havens, free zones and free ports of the world, to conduct their activities unhampered by state structures, which they do by investing their money in recognized economic entities, or financing political parties.
The article provides review of the globalization and global integration processes impact on the financial sector formation characterized by an increase in financial flows with the lead role played by ...transnational corporations and transnational banks. The globalization study has been already reflected by numerous scientific publications and various issues of reputable international academic journals describing the process as irreversible and objective along with demonstrating globalization merits and demerits, etc. In the 21st century, globalization is an issue discussed by everyone: ranging from presidents, prime ministers and members of parliament supposed to solve problems of any scale taking into consideration the global development phenomenon, to ordinary citizens. Today, globalization has obviously become a major trend of the modern world development, which is why issues implying sound development assurance become pressing for each country. The article dwells upon the main component of economic security — the financial one (Ukraine case study). Thus, we are engaged in studying the global development trend in terms of assuring security of the state under conditions of financial flows globalization and existence of global integration processes.
Interdiction of terrorist funds is a priority for intergovernmental cooperation. However, multilateral and unilateral attempts to ensure timely reporting of transactions made by targeted individuals ...or groups, and to deny them access to the international financial system, have had limited success. This is mainly due to economic disincentives for the disclosure of the identity and purpose of transacting agents, particularly those using correspondent banking services, informal money transfer networks (MTNs) and offshore financial centres (OFCs). This paper proposes that solutions should be based on positive incentives for disclosure, and could include trans-border withholding taxes on transactions with unregulated clients and the provision of affordable transfer systems for emigrants.
The International Financial Services (IFS) industry is restructuring internally and by location. This paper outlines the economic forces and analytical methods that may be applied to examine the ...economic drivers of these processes as ever more cities, particularly in East Asia, are vying to attract IFS providers and their clients. The ICT revolution has made those IFS that can be commoditized footloose in search of cost efficiency. High value-added financial services, however, will continue to be developed and coordinated in a few major IFS centers that have invested in, or capitalized on, regional or global advantages for themselves and their clients. The resulting pattern of functional fragmentation and geographic dispersal may facilitate analyses of the competitiveness of different lines of the financial services business in a particular location by methods such as Data Envelopment and Stochastic Frontier Analysis. These forms of comparative efficiency analysis have recently been questioned and their results reinterpreted.
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