Tax Havens - a good thing ?

lostinrates

lonestar1 wrote: »

Tax Havens are a great way for [STRIKE]criminal [/STRIKE]organisations to hide their assets

All organisations.

Generali

lonestar1 wrote: »

Tax Havens are a great way for criminal organisations to hide their assets

They are. However, the companies that operate there are just following local laws. It's no more reasonable for the UK to dictate banking laws in Cayman than it is for China to dictate banking laws to the UK.

kabayiri

davetrousers wrote: »

Interesting thought, the tax havens of the Worlds! Inter Planetary tax havens.

Does the Queen have her own flag?

Hehe, I hope so.....I bought her one, hope she hasn't lost it

itsnever2lateisit?

davetrousers wrote: »

Interesting thought, the tax havens of the Worlds! Inter Planetary tax havens.

Does the Queen have her own flag?

Yes, The Crown have many flags, the most obvious being the Royal Standard, but the Union Flag is also an emblem of the Crown, and not the property of us 'commoners':D

itsnever2lateisit?

Back on topic, depends if these so called 'Tax Havens' are being used for tax avoidance (Criminal Activity) or Tax management which is not a crime. For example some companies are domicile in Luxembourg even though their customer base is exclusively in the UK. It allows them to charge a lower rate of VAT to the UK customer. They are not avoiding tax, but paying it in another EU state

1echidna

Generali wrote: »

They are. However, the companies that operate there are just following local laws. It's no more reasonable for the UK to dictate banking laws in Cayman than it is for China to dictate banking laws to the UK.

I am sure that there would be great resistance from the populations of these tax havens if the gov'ts of large countries staged a co-ordinated attack on the banking rules of these small havens. Certainly there would be little mileage in one country alone trying to do this and, as you say, it would not be reasonable. Brown is not above huffing and puffing about this though, presumably for the political mileage, much as he huffed and puffed about Sir Fred's pension, another matter on which he was ultimately impotent.

kabayiri

What about a company which registers intellectual property (such as 'management foresight') offshore ?

Would that be reasonable do you think?

Generali

kabayiri wrote: »

What about a company which registers intellectual property (such as 'management foresight') offshore ?

Would that be reasonable do you think?

If it's legal, it's ok. If it's not it isn't. That's how UK law works.

'Reasonable' rarely matters.

maninthestreet

The only way to abolish tax havens would be to have every country in the world having exactly the same tax regime. This is never going to happen.

kabayiri

KPMG were fined $456m dollars for their tax avoidance products in what the senate described as the 'biggest avoidance scheme in history'. That doesn't sound very legal to me.

This is the same lot who are now advising HMRC, by the way.