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Offshore tax havens are countries or jurisdictions that have a series of unique characteristics, the primary one being the relatively lower tax rates in comparison with other countries. (Spitz 2000, 4) The tax havens are spreading rapidly in governments which provide tax shelters to rich citizens and corporations an escape from national taxation systems. ... It is important to define what tax havens are, who and where the main players are, furthermore, what they provide. In many countries, tax havens mean no tax at all on capital and income earned. ... It is the position of this paper that these tax regimes should be governed to prevent harmful tax havens and criminal activities. To do so, I will firstly examine the how tax havens function, looking in detail at Lichtenstein, thereafter note their positive and negative aspects, and conclude with remarks on what international incentives have been undertaken to curtail the aforementioned harmful practices.
There are about 46 major jurisdictions in the world which are in favour of tax havens, the most important being the Bahamas , Bermuda , the Cayman Islands , Hong Kong, Lichtenstein, Monaco, Panama, Singapore, Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands; the list includes half of the Caribbean’s islands and other tropical paradises from the south Pacific and Indian Ocean. There is a rapidly growing trend which sees new countries being added to the tax havens such as Mauritius, Western Samoa, Nevis and Aruba.
Approximate Word count = 1078
Approximate Pages = 4.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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