• Five myths about tax havens
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-tax-havens/2016/04/15/76d001d2-0255-11e6-b823-707c79ce3504_story.html

    Par Nicholas Shaxson

    3. Besides Switzerland, most tax havens are small tropical
    islands.

    “Offshore tax haven” probably summons to mind tiny palm-fringed countries in the Caribbean — “sunny places for shady people,” as Britain’s former secretary of business, Vince Cable, put it. But this notion is slowly giving way to a more accurate — and more alarming — picture.

    Among the world’s biggest tax havens is the United States, which hosts vast sums of foreign wealth under conditions of strong secrecy. States including Delaware and Nevada allow shell companies whose owners are not identified, providing cover for foreign cash. And while most havens have signed on to a strong global transparency scheme for sharing banking information (called the Common Reporting Standard) that will take effect in 2017, the United States isn’t playing ball, meaning it will continue to serve as a haven for secretive foreign money. [http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/Tax/us-tax-notes-parillo-081715.pdf]

    Britain is perhaps even worse. It runs a network of some of the world’s largest havens, from the Cayman Islands to Bermuda to Jersey. These places, the last remnants of the British Empire, are partly independent (and yes, some are quite sunny). But their legislation is approved in London, Queen Elizabeth II appoints their governors and her head graces their stamps and banknotes. A Financial Secrecy Index ranking the world’s biggest tax havens by secrecy and scale — a project I’ve been involved in — puts the United States in third place, after Switzerland and Hong Kong. If Britain were lumped in with its offshore network, though, it would rank first.

    #Etats-Unis #Grande-Bretagne #Suisse #paradis_fiscaux #évasion_fiscale