Two years ago, governments around the world vowed to crack down on tax havens around the world, agreeing to name and shame countries that fail to comply with internationally agreed standards.
That turned out to be just a lot of hot air. Tax Justice Network has released a list of the world's top tax havens starting with Switzerland. Next down the list come the Cayman Island, Luxembourg and Hong Kong. The USA is next on the list, a tribute to its slack tax laws, followed by Singapore, Jersey, Japan, Germany and Bahrain.
The list is hardly surprising. As reported here, Switzerland is top of the list because of its long history of bank secrecy going back nearly 80 years. As Reuters reports, it's that secrecy that draws the rich.
We will know governments are serious about tax havens when they start cracking down on that secrecy and winding it back. But then, the banks wouldn't want that.
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