Results tagged “offshore bank account”

Britain's crown dependencies and overseas territories are scrambling to defend themselves against the latest rhetoric issued by high-tax countries.

Supposedly 'leading' offshore centres are pleading for a more discriminate approach to distinguish themselves from the 'dirtier' unregulated tax havens.

Geoff Cook of Jersey Finance, which represents the island's financial industry, says: "The thing we worry about is we are being tarred with the same brush as everyone else."

Of international leaders: "They are desperate to find any way they can of increasing their tax collection and they are desperate to deflect attention away from the domestic situation."

The Cayman Islands took a similar stance:"We fear a very indiscriminate position will be
taken which owes more to protectionism and prejudice than judgement and intellectual application,"  said Deborah Drummond, deputy financial secretary of the Islands.

Last week the US administration offered encouragement for new anti-tax haven legislation that builds on the 'stop tax haven abuse act' introduced by then Senator Obama. If passed, numerous tax havens, among them many British colonies and territories may find themselves on the receiving end of sanctions which force them to be more transparent. The UK, Germany and France have also called for a crackdown on tax havens, hoping to make it a top issue at April's G20 summit.

Tax evasion scandals linked to swiss offshore banking and Liechtenstein have increased pressure, as has the banking crisis, when it was revealed that banks were some of the heaviest users of offshore jurisdictions.

Although it is widely opined by experts that offshore banking is not a major factor in the global financial crisis, many governments may find it easy to target offshore tax havens, leveraging on their close links to the banking sector.

"We are concerned about U.S. people hiding their assets and not reporting their correct worldwide income," said Steven Musher, IRS associate chief counsel for international issues.

A date was not given for the release of the revised QI rules, but Musher suggested they may not be overly oppressive in order to allow banks some legroom, "We are trying to achieve the balance between increasing the reliability and quality of documentation to serve these various competing purposes," he said.

The IRS is keeping quiet on its latest action against UBS, with senior UBS officer Mark Branson to face a  U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee today.

Swiss offshore banking could the one to face the brunt of the tax haven crackdown with politicians unlikely to remain aloof from the media and public opinion.

At a Tax Council Policy Institute conference the IRS 'comissar' Douglas Shulman has reiterated his desire to target individuals and companies with secret offshore bank accounts,

''Clearly there have been some high profile cases in the
news recently. We have been steadily increasing pressure on
offshore financial institutions that facilitate concealment of
taxable income in the U.S...That pressure will continue under my watch,"

Gordon Brown is planning to spearhead a global crackdown on offshore tax havens and tax evasion using offshore bank accounts. A tough 'worldwide' regulatory tax and banking system is the pipeline that aims to cover every country.

Speaking at a downing street press conference he said "We want the whole of the world to take action. That will mean action against regulatory and tax havens in parts of the world which have escaped the regulatory attention they need. The changes we make will have to apply to all jurisdictions around the world."

While the US is more concerned about tax losses in the Cayman Islands, the tip of Brown's lance appears to be aimed at Switzerland, and especially at individual tax avoiders in that country. The government claims that investigations into tax avoidance frequently led to Switzerland, but others may view the decision as rather more political.

Brown is shying away from attacking British tax havens and big business, instead focusing on easier targets such as rich people and foreigners. Targeting the island havens like Jersey or the Isle of Man would be attacking the cozy links he has developed with corporate UK over the past 10 years. He may also be wary of damaging the competitiveness of UK companies which is actively maintained by their low tax base.

Even so, its smacks of hypocrisy may well be a case of riding on the coat-tails of the UBS scandal to go for individual Swiss bank account holders in this way.