Bermuda listed among the biggest tax havens
Bermuda is listed as 14th in a survey of the world’s biggest tax havens, by a US activist non-profit organisation.
The Global Citizen organisation placed the Island just ahead of Guernsey in the Channel Islands to round its 15-strong list — well behind the US, UK and number one spot Switzerland, as well as Jersey and the Cayman Islands.
The report said of Bermuda: “Located a couple of hours off the east coast of the USA, Bermuda is another piece of UK territory that has long been known as a tax haven.
“The unlikely home of tennis stars and actors, Bermuda’s tax system puts taxes on staff payrolls, but not on corporate earnings or investment income.
“Its largest customer for offshore transactions is the United States.”
The list put Switzerland at the top of the list at number one — but added that the UK, if its “satellite secrecy jurisdictions” were added in, would have been first “by an absolute mile”.
The Global Citizen report said of Switzerland: “The secrecy laws have been chipped away at a little bit by international lawmakers in recent years, but the sheer scale of what’s going on in Switzerland makes it the grand champion of this list.
“Countless highly wealthy people and companies have money hidden here and because Switzerland is not a member of the EU, it makes the country better able to resist international pressure to change its laws.”
But the survey added: “While you might hear politicians in London crying foul about how other countries are acting as tax havens, the lion’s share of them sit under the British crown.
The report said: “Nobody likes to be called a tax haven, partly because that scrutiny might make it harder for a tax haven to do business.
“Many so-called tax havens have gone to great lengths to cooperate with international efforts to stamp out gigantic tax avoidance, but only in ways that mean they can continue to host gigantic tax avoidance.”
The index was drawn up using 15 different “secrecy indicators” to determine which countries “make it easiest to hide money and avoid tax.”
Global Citizen added: “Then it factors in how big the country’s financial services industry is.
“The second step is important because a tiny country with a small number of shady financial transactions isn’t as much of an overall problem as a large country with millions of secret foreign transactions per day.”
Jersey, also a UK Overseas Territory, in ninth place, while Cayman takes fourth spot.
Global Citizen — an advocacy organisation — is supported by several UN bodies, including UNICEF, the UK Department of International Development and charities, including Oxfam and Save the Children, as well by major corporations like Google, which has come under fire in the past for its tax-minimising arrangements using a series of countries, with billions of dollars ending up in Bermuda.
