経済危機にともなって脱税天国での脱税、節税？が増加する
Los paraísos fiscales ganan con la crisis
Expertos coinciden en que la actividad en las jurisdicciones opacas ha crecido pese al esfuerzo de las instituciones internacionales para acabar con ellas
Jesús Sérvulo González Madrid 7 ABR 2013 - 19:41 CET
Tax havens gain from the crisis
Experts agree that the opaque jurisdictions activity has grown despite the efforts of international institutions to end them
Jesus Gonzalez Madrid Sérvulo 7 ABR 2013 - 19:41 CET
With about 200 euros you can be on the Internet a company in Delaware, the second smallest state in the United States. You will need to pay another $ 49 a year to an agent authorized by the local rulers. They are the only requirements to mount a shell company. In the state website explains how. Through this company can create another in any of the 80 territories considered tax havens. And voilà: you can now operate anywhere in the world without disclosing that you are the beneficial owner of these companies. Ready to evade taxes and hide part of their heritage. Perhaps this is why Delaware has the same population as businesses and is considered an offshore territory [term that referred to tax havens].
Activity in these jurisdictions has grown with the crisis despite the efforts of international organizations to limit it. A recent study released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ, its acronym in English) has revealed that politicians and business 130,000 worldwide use tax havens to hide their business and their money. The electoral campaign extesorero Hollande, Jean-Jacques Augier, the Baroness Thyssen Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, appear in the research cited ICIJ.
The Spanish blacklist
Spain has its own list of tax haven countries. He published more than two decades in the Royal Decree 1080/91. The decree listed 48 offshore territories. In 2003 it was amended to specify that exclude those countries to sign an agreement to exchange information.
The list included Andorra, Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, Bahrain, Brunei, Cyprus, United Arab Emirates, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Dominica, Granada, Fiji, Islands Guernsey and Jersey (Channel Islands), Jamaica, Malta, Malvinas, Isle of Man, Northern Mariana Islands, Mauritius, Montserrat, Nauru, Solomon Islands, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Vanuatu, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Jordan, Lebanese Republic, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macao, Monaco, Oman, Panama, San Marino, Seychelles and Singapore. Since then, the Spanish Gobinero has signed agreements with a dozen of these countries but there are still 36 territories considered tax havens.
Cyprus is considered as a tax haven by Spain. Although it has signed an information exchange agreement has not yet entered into force.
The problem havens is not new. Although becoming increasingly complex and more difficult to justify by the governments of developed countries. Having the money was not illegal, the irregular is it to evade taxes and, especially, the illicit origin.
The drama of Cyprus, the troika rescued after attempting to small savers pay part of their deposits with the excesses of banks, has discovered the problem that lie behind these opaque jurisdictions. Cyprus remains a tax haven for Spain. Its capital, Nicosia, welcomed about 30,000 million Russian capital, half of all bank deposits, which, in turn, represent four times the country's gross domestic product: an anomaly. In Spain, for example, deposits represent only once GDP.
Cyprus and Delaware are not isolated cases. In George Town, capital of the Cayman Islands, there is a five-storey white building and red railings. Locals know it as Ugland House. In this construction are headquartered over 18,500 businesses. "Or is the world's largest building or structure is the largest existing tax evasion," said Barack Obama during the 2008 election campaign referring to this particular business center. In this fiscal limbo are countries like Switzerland, Luxembourg, the British Isles, or the actual City of London, among others.
The crisis, capital flight and aggressive tax planning business majors favor of these treasure islands. "You can say categorically that financial assets held offshore have grown," said Juan Hernandez Vigueras, author of The casino that governs us: Traps and financial games to clear.
Foreign deposits in jurisdictions opaque rose more than 2% in 2011, according to a conservative estimate with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). However, it is difficult to obtain reliable figures of the money that circulates in these administrations. The most cited study and more reputation has been developed by the nonprofit organization Tax Justice Network (TJN). The lawsuit, filed in July last year, is between 21 and 32 billion dollars, equivalent to about 24 billion euros (b) - the flow of money in tax havens in 2010. This amount represents about a quarter of global wealth. James Henry, lead author of the study concludes that this practice makes the inequality between rich and poor is much higher than you think. Consider that while the great fortunes capital evade other citizens increasingly taxes paid by the crisis.
A report stands at 24 billion assets in financial limbo
Another study by the NGO Global Financial Integrity estimated at 860,000 million capital flows received fraudulent Treasure Islands in 2010. "Many of these resources come from business activities. There is little transparency, "says Susana Ruiz, of Oxfam, adding:" We are aware that much of the funds are in tax havens are illegal activities such as terrorism, drug trafficking, or sale of weapons but more than half of these come from large multinational capital. "
An example of this practice is Google, which in 2011 cut its tax bill by 2,000 milion dollars (about 1,550 million euros), to move to a shell company of Bermuda revenue 9,900 million, double the three previous years, according to Bloomberg.
90% of companies in the FTSE has subsidiaries in offshore centers
Large multinationals create branches in these countries to pay less tax. It occurs worldwide, including in Spain. The 85% of companies in the IBEX 35 has branches in tax havens, according to a report by the Observatory on Corporate Social Responsibility on the 2010 accounts. The document shows that of the 35 companies listed on the Spanish index, 30 had subsidiaries in tax havens. The data is revealing because three years earlier, just before the collapse that left battered global economy, only 18 of these companies had offices in opaque countries. "The economic and financial crisis of 2008 has shown the decisive contribution of tax havens and harmful tax practices, the financial instability of the global economy," says José Luis Escario author of Tax Havens, black holes the global economy.
"It is primarily a financial problem. Not only is tax evasion "
The problem arises in defining what a tax haven. The OECD, the club of the world's most developed countries, defined in 1998: areas with low taxation and financial opacity. Shortly afterwards published a list of 35 countries or territories identified as tax havens. The UN has counted a total of 74 territories opaque, although other studies-for example, "financial secrecy index" developed by TJN nearly 80-point non-cooperative jurisdictions.
The OECD established a criterion by which recommended that countries establish information exchange agreements to remove them from their blacklist. "Countries cheat," says José María Peláez, a member of the Organization of Tax Inspectors (IHE). "The OECD Model obliged countries to be 12 swaps. There are opaque territories that have signed roaming agreements with other tax havens ". Currently the OECD believes that there is no off-shore territory. Although many opaque territories have information exchange agreements when they demur truth to facilitate it, support tax inspectors.
Luxembourg has announced that more flexible banking secrecy
Part of the key to these countries is banking secrecy. Austria has warned this week that it will defend its banking secrecy. Luxembourg, meanwhile, raises it more flexible. Meanwhile, the United States is pushing these countries, including Switzerland, that will provide data on bank accounts to catch alleged tax evaders. But if you've created a shell company, for example, in Delaware, it will be difficult being caught.
Robert Louis Stevenson never thought to write Treasure Island this term would be used to define tax havens. If not, maybe the young Jim Hawkins had left the treasure of Long John Silver in the little British Caribbean island and would have saved a good haul of taxes.
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