From THE NATION:
By some estimates, the United States loses $100 billion every year to foreign tax havens, though Shaxson emphasizes that most people still don’t really grasp the enormity of the problem. When they hear the term “tax havens,” many people envision a handful of billionaires sunning themselves on a remote beach somewhere, martinis in hands. The real problem is actually much larger and closer to home.
There now exists an entire parallel network of business conducted by huge corporations that actually mirrors the behavior of international crime organizations. Over half the world trade is now routed through tax havens. “You have this zone where you have big corporations and criminals rubbing shoulders with each other,” says Shaxson. This system has a double effect, he explains. First, it creates incentives to break the law at a corporate level, but it is also “going to provide huge political cover for the criminals themselves when you get the corporations protecting the tax havens and protecting secrecy.”
And this isn’t just happening on sandy beaches, [authorNicholas Shaxson (Treasure Islands)] explains. “The biggest tax havens are big, rich countries, particularly the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland—of course, the Cayman Islands is very big too—but also countries like Ireland and Luxembourg, Luxembourg is absolutely huge. Very few people talk about it when they’re thinking about tax havenry.”
Click here to read the full article.
