Part 1 - AL-Tax
Share Embed Flag
Download ePaper

Part 1 - AL-Tax

Part 1 - AL-Tax Part 1 - AL-Tax

eduart0.tripod.com
from eduart0.tripod.com More from this publisher
12.07.2015 Views

Taiwan China – 24.7 – 8.1 48.0Denmark 7.5 18.8 150.7 7.8 14.4 IEAustria 11.6 20.3 75.0 6.9 18.8 WTUSA 93.2 597.6 541.2 5.1 27.9France 56.8 101.1 78.0 4.9 10.0 IEIndia – 32.7 – 4.8 78.0Canada 29.7 41.6 40.1 4.2 28.7Sweden 8.1 13.3 64.2 3.8 8.6 IEAustralia – 22.1 – 3.5 26.2Finland 0.7 4.6 557.1 2.5 10.7 IEItaly 12.8 36.3 183.6 2.2 7.6 IETurkey – 5.9 – 2.0 26.0Norway 2.1 4.7 123.8 1.9 13.9Chile – 1.4 – 1.5 23.7Japan 20.6 65.6 218.4 1.4 11.5Brazil – 1.8 – 0.3 9.1Mexico – 0.3 – 0.0 15.8Sources: BIS (2006), Tables 3A-B of the Locational Statistics, and statistical agencies of Guersney, Isle of Man, and Jersey.Nominal GDP is taken from the UNCTAD database (2006).a Country coverage is determined by the availability of statistics for these countries.b Stock of external deposits as of December 2004.c Total external deposits of nonresident investors (the denominator) consist of inter-bank deposits and deposits made by nonbanks (numerator). The latterinclude deposits made by individuals, businesses, and nonbank financial institutions.d WT and IE denote withholding tax and information sharing respectively.e Countries on the June 2000 OECD list of noncooperative tax havens.f The totals cannot be compared due to the smaller country coverage (24 countries in 1995 versus 39 in 2004).259

International Taxation HandbookThe nine jurisdictions (in order of size) are: the Cayman Islands, Jersey, theBahamas, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Singapore, Luxembourg, Netherlands Antilles,and Bahrain. Column 5 of the table shows that all jurisdictions (except Bahrain)have an above average share of nonresident deposits in total external (includinginter-bank) deposits, suggesting that attracting nonresident, nonbank deposits is animportant economic activity. Six of the nine (offshore) financial centers operate awithholding tax under the EU savings tax (column 6). Of the 19 countries with anexternal deposit-to-GDP share exceeding the average, six are not covered by the EUsavings tax: The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bermuda, Hong Kong SAR, Panama, andSingapore (Bermuda – a dependent territory of the UK – seems to have been accidentlyleft out by the European Union). In absolute terms, Singapore, the Bahamas,and Hong Kong SAR are the three most important financial centers on this list.Four of the six noncovered jurisdictions – that is, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bermuda,and Panama – are on the original (June 2000) OECD list of uncooperative taxhavens. In sum, the country coverage of the EU savings tax is far from complete,which is hardly a surprising conclusion. Canada and Japan – which were put forwardby Weiner (2002) in the discussion of country coverage – do not seem to featureprominently on the list of offshore financial centers.Gnaedinger and Radziejewska (2003) have raised doubts about the EU savingstax’s ability to raise public revenue because people may have nontax motives forholding cross-border deposits. Individuals may, for example, be holding foreignbank accounts for convenience during vacations or business trips abroad.Evidently, no information is available to substantiate this claim. But there can belittle doubt that tax motives for holding foreign bank accounts do play a role forwealthy individuals, just as they do in companies’ location decisions.The EU savings taxation directive only applies to individuals’ savings and notthose of corporations and other legal entities (such as partnerships, limited partnerships,foundations, and many trusts), reflecting the reduced likelihood of taxevasion by corporations as compared to individuals (due to annual filing requirementsand regular audits of corporations, tax evasion by corporations is smallerthan by individuals). Such differential treatment entails the risk that trulywealthy Europeans incorporate their cross-border savings to evade taxation, givingrise to undesirable distributional effects. The incentives to incorporate arelikely to be small in countries with high corporate income taxes, since corporateprofits are generally taxed as high as personal income. But many of the smallerjurisdictions covered by the EU savings tax do not have corporate income taxes(that is, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and Turks andCaicos Islands), making them excellent business locations.260

Taiwan China – 24.7 – 8.1 48.0Denmark 7.5 18.8 150.7 7.8 14.4 IEAustria 11.6 20.3 75.0 6.9 18.8 WTUSA 93.2 597.6 541.2 5.1 27.9France 56.8 101.1 78.0 4.9 10.0 IEIndia – 32.7 – 4.8 78.0Canada 29.7 41.6 40.1 4.2 28.7Sweden 8.1 13.3 64.2 3.8 8.6 IEAustralia – 22.1 – 3.5 26.2Finland 0.7 4.6 557.1 2.5 10.7 IEItaly 12.8 36.3 183.6 2.2 7.6 IETurkey – 5.9 – 2.0 26.0Norway 2.1 4.7 123.8 1.9 13.9Chile – 1.4 – 1.5 23.7Japan 20.6 65.6 218.4 1.4 11.5Brazil – 1.8 – 0.3 9.1Mexico – 0.3 – 0.0 15.8Sources: BIS (2006), Tables 3A-B of the Locational Statistics, and statistical agencies of Guersney, Isle of Man, and Jersey.Nominal GDP is taken from the UNCTAD database (2006).a Country coverage is determined by the availability of statistics for these countries.b Stock of external deposits as of December 2004.c Total external deposits of nonresident investors (the denominator) consist of inter-bank deposits and deposits made by nonbanks (numerator). The latterinclude deposits made by individuals, businesses, and nonbank financial institutions.d WT and IE denote withholding tax and information sharing respectively.e Countries on the June 2000 OECD list of noncooperative tax havens.f The totals cannot be compared due to the smaller country coverage (24 countries in 1995 versus 39 in 2004).259

logo

products

Resources

Company

Terms of service
Privacy policy
Cookie policy
Cookie settings
Imprint
Change language
Made with love in Switzerland
© 2024 Yumpu.com all rights reserved

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!