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68-585: The International Business Companies Act, 1984 was a statute of the British Virgin Islands which permitted the incorporation of International Business Companies (IBCs) within the Territory. The Act played in a huge role in the economic and financial development of the Territory in the 1990s. It has been called " the most important piece of legislation in BVI history since the emancipation ". The original Act

136-648: A § Top 10 tax havens in all three quantitative lists, Hines 2010, ITEP 2017 and Zucman 2018 (above); all nine such § Top 10 tax havens are listed below. (♣) Appears on the James Hines 2010 list of 52 tax havens; 17 of the 20 locations below, are on the James Hines 2010 list. (Δ) Identified on the largest OECD 2000 list of 35 tax havens (the OECD list only contained Trinidad & Tobago by 2017); only four locations below were ever on an OECD list. (↕) Identified on

204-406: A consequence they have few bilateral tax treaties . Modern corporate tax havens have non-zero "headline" rates of taxation and high levels of OECD compliance, and thus have large networks of bilateral tax treaties. However, their base erosion and profit shifting ("BEPS") tools enable corporates to achieve "effective" tax rates closer to zero, not just in the haven but in all countries with which

272-472: A hybrid "territorial" tax system, and proposed EU Digital Services Tax regime, and EU Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base ). While areas of low taxation are recorded in Ancient Greece, tax academics identify what we know as tax havens as being a modern phenomenon, and note the following phases in their development: There is no established consensus regarding a specific definition for what constitutes

340-476: A list of 52 tax havens , which he had scaled quantitatively by analysing corporate investment flows. Hines' largest havens were dominated by corporate tax havens, who Dharmapala noted in 2014 accounted for the bulk of global tax haven activity from BEPS tools. The Hines 2010 list was the first to estimate the ten largest global tax havens, only two of which, Jersey and the British Virgin Islands, were on

408-534: A loss of tax revenues to countries which are not tax havens. Estimates of the § Financial scale of taxes avoided vary, but the most credible have a range of US$ 100–250 billion per annum. In addition, capital held in tax havens can permanently leave the tax base (base erosion). Estimates of capital held in tax havens also vary: the most credible estimates are between US$ 7–10 trillion (up to 10% of global assets). The harm of traditional and corporate tax havens has been particularly noted in developing nations, where

476-565: A series of international initiatives were commenced against tax havens by supra-national bodies such as the OECD , including an initiative against what was termed " unfair tax competition ". One of the concerns of the OECD was that jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands had a " ring fenced " tax regime, whereby companies could be incorporated under the International Business Companies Act which could not actually trade in

544-526: A tax haven. This is the conclusion from non-governmental organisations , such as the Tax Justice Network in 2018, from the 2008 investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office , from the 2015 investigation by the U.S. Congressional Research Service , from the 2017 investigation by the European Parliament, and from leading academic researchers of tax havens. The issue, however,

612-525: Is focused on quantitative analysis (which can be ranked), and tends to ignore very small tax havens where data is limited as the haven is used for individual tax avoidance rather than corporate tax avoidance. The last credible broad unranked list of global tax havens is the James Hines 2010 list of 52 tax havens. It is shown below but expanded to 55 to include havens identified in the July 2017 Conduit and Sink OFCs study that were not considered havens in 2010, namely

680-422: Is material, as being labelled a "tax haven" has consequences for a country seeking to develop and trade under bilateral tax treaties. When Ireland was "blacklisted" by G20 member Brazil in 2016, bilateral trade declined. One of the first § Important papers on tax havens , was the 1994 Hines–Rice paper by James R. Hines Jr. It is the most cited paper on tax haven research, even in late 2017, and Hines

748-437: Is the most cited author on tax haven research. As well as offering insights into tax havens, it took the view that the diversity of countries that become tax havens was so great that detailed definitions were inappropriate. Hines merely noted that tax havens were: "a group of countries with unusually low tax rates". Hines reaffirmed this approach in a 2009 paper with Dhammika Dharmapala . In December 2008, Dharmapala wrote that

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816-526: The Cayman Islands , as Google, Facebook and Apple do not appear on Orbis. Even so, Zucman's 2018 list of top 10 havens also matched 9 of the top 10 havens in Hines' 2010 list, but with Ireland as the largest global haven. These lists (Hines 2010, CORPNET 2017 and Zucman 2018), and others, which followed a purely quantitive approach, showed a firm consensus around the largest corporate tax havens. In October 2009,

884-467: The Financial Secrecy Index ), but not on corporate tax haven or traditional tax haven lists, are: Neither the U.S. nor Germany have appeared on any tax haven lists by the main academic leaders in tax haven research, namely James R. Hines Jr. , Dhammika Dharmapala , or Gabriel Zucman . There are no known cases of foreign firms executing tax inversions to the U.S. or Germany for tax purposes,

952-803: The NBER listed the key tax havens as: "Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, Singapore, Bermuda and [the] Caribbean havens". (*) Appears as a top ten tax haven in all three lists; 9 major tax havens meet this criterion, Ireland, Singapore, Switzerland and the Netherlands (the Conduit OFCs), and the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and Bermuda (the Sink OFCs) . (†) Also appears as one of 5 Conduit OFC (Ireland, Singapore, Switzerland,

1020-403: The Tax Justice Network introduced the Financial Secrecy Index ("FSI") and the term "secrecy jurisdiction", to highlight issues in regard to OECD-compliant countries who have high tax rates and do not appear on academic lists of tax havens, but have transparency issues. The FSI does not assess tax rates or BEPS flows in its calculation; but it is often misinterpreted as a tax haven definition in

1088-585: The § Top 10 tax havens lists, namely: Caribbean tax havens (e.g., Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands), Channel Islands tax havens (e.g. Jersey) and Asian tax havens (e.g., Singapore and Hong Kong). As discussed in § History , the United Kingdom created its first "non-resident company" in 1929, and led the Eurodollar offshore financial centre market post–World War II. Since

1156-430: The 2015 U.S. Congressional Research Service investigation into tax havens, as being restrictive, and enabling Hines' low-tax havens (i.e. to which the first criterion applies), to avoid the OECD definition by improving OECD cooperation (so the second and third criteria do not apply). Thus, the evidence (limited though it undoubtedly is) does not suggest any impact of the OECD initiative on tax-haven activity. [...] Thus,

1224-456: The Act drew heavily upon elements of Delaware corporate law . This reflected the market for British Virgin Islands companies prior to the repeal of the double-tax treaty. The essence of the Act was that a company incorporated under that legislation was prohibited from conducting business with people resident within the Territory (i.e. it was for International Business), and in exchange the company

1292-527: The British Government to produce a report on the offshore financial industry generally, and the report indicated that approximately 45% of the offshore companies in the world were formed in the British Virgin Islands, making the British Virgin Islands one of the world's leading offshore financial centres . As a direct result the Territory has one of the highest incomes per capita in the Caribbean. In 1999,

1360-499: The British Virgin Islands abolished both income tax and stamp duty on all transactions except those relating to land in the Territory. Then the government enacted the BVI Business Companies Act (No 16 of 2004). The slightly cumbersome name was designed to slightly reflect the name of the earlier statute and cash-in on the "IBC brand" which had grown under the former legislation. From 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2005

1428-698: The European Union's first 2017 list of 17 tax havens; only one location below is on the EU 2017 list. Sovereign states that feature mainly as major corporate tax havens are: Sovereign states or autonomous regions that feature as both major corporate tax havens and major traditional tax havens: Sovereign (including de facto) states that feature mainly as traditional tax havens (but have non-zero tax rates): Sovereign or sub-national states that are very traditional tax havens (i.e. explicit 0% rate of tax) include (fuller list in table opposite): Post–2010 research on tax havens

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1496-508: The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom), in CORPNET's 2017 research; or (‡) Also appears as a Top 5 Sink OFC (British Virgin Islands, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Jersey, Bermuda), in CORPNET's 2017 research. (Δ) Identified on the first, and largest, OECD 2000 list of 35 tax havens (the OECD list only contained Trinidad & Tobago by 2017). The strongest consensus amongst academics regarding

1564-645: The OECD initiative cannot be expected to have much impact on corporate uses of tax havens, even if (or when) the initiative is fully implemented In April 2000, the Financial Stability Forum (or FSF) defined the related concept of an offshore financial centre (or OFC), which the IMF adopted in June 2000, producing a list of 46 OFCs . The FSF–IMF definition focused on the BEPS tools havens offer, and on Hines ' observation that

1632-410: The OECD process had removed much of the need to include "bank secrecy" in any definition of a tax haven and that it was now "first and foremost, low or zero corporate tax rates", and this has become the general "financial dictionary" definition of a tax haven. Hines refined his definition in 2016 to incorporate research on § Incentives for tax havens on governance, which is broadly accepted in

1700-599: The OECD's 2000 list. In July 2017, the University of Amsterdam 's CORPNET group ignored any definition of a tax haven and focused on a purely quantitive approach, analysing 98 million global corporate connections on the Orbis database . CORPNET's lists of top five Conduit OFCs , and top five Sink OFCs , matched 9 of the top 10 havens in Hines' 2010 list, only differing in the United Kingdom, which only transformed their tax code in 2009–12 . CORPNET's Conduit and Sink OFCs study split

1768-461: The OECD's new Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes , and therefore would not meet Criteria ii and Criteria iii . As the OECD has never listed any of its 35 members as tax havens, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland are sometimes defined as the "OECD tax havens". In 2017, only Trinidad & Tobago met the 1998 OECD definition; that definition thus fell into disrepute. (†) The 4th criterion

1836-647: The Statute of the International Court of Justice and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court . Statute is also another word for law. The term was adapted from England in about the 18th century. In the autonomous communities of Spain , an autonomy statute is a legal document similar to the constitution of a federated state , save that it is enacted by the national legislature, rather than

1904-406: The Territory, but would also be exempt from most British Virgin Islands taxes . After a series of discussions, the British Virgin Islands government agreed to repeal the ring-fencing provisions in its tax legislation. Because of the sheer volume of companies involved, the transition to a new legislative framework was accomplished over a two-year transition period. To protect the offshore business,

1972-459: The United Kingdom) were cited as the world's leading tax havens. The longest list from Non-governmental, Quantitative research on tax havens is the University of Amsterdam CORPNET July 2017 Conduit and Sink OFCs study, at 29 (5 Conduit OFCs and 25 Sink OFCs). The following are the 20 largest (5 Conduit OFCs and 15 Sink OFCs), which reconcile with other main lists as follows: (*) Appears in as

2040-427: The United Kingdom, Taiwan, and Curaçao. The James Hines 2010 list contains 34 of the original 35 OECD tax havens; and compared with the § Top 10 tax havens and § Top 20 tax havens above, show OECD processes focus on the compliance of tiny havens. (†) Identified as one of the 5 Conduits by CORPNET in 2017; the above list has 5 of the 5. (‡) Identified as one of the largest 24 Sinks by CORPNET in 2017;

2108-573: The United States and Germany in the Financial Secrecy Index (FSI) rankings, can be featured in some tax haven lists, they are often omitted from lists for political reasons or through lack of subject matter knowledge. In contrast, countries with lower levels of secrecy but also low "effective" rates of taxation, most notably Ireland in the FSI rankings, appear in most § Tax haven lists . The consensus on effective tax rates has led academics to note that

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2176-472: The above list has 23 of the 24 (Guyana missing). (↕) Identified on the European Union's first 2017 list of 17 tax havens; the above list contains 8 of the 17. (Δ) Identified on the first, and the largest, OECD 2000 list of 35 tax havens (the OECD list only contained Trinidad & Tobago by 2017); the above list contains 34 of the 35 (U.S. Virgin Islands missing). U.S. dedicated entities: Major sovereign States which feature on financial secrecy lists (e.g.

2244-489: The academic lexicon. Tax havens are typically small, well-governed states that impose low or zero tax rates on foreign investors. In April 1998, the OECD produced a definition of a tax haven, as meeting "three of four" criteria. It was produced as part of their "Harmful Tax Competition: An Emerging Global Issue" initiative. By 2000, when the OECD published their first list of tax havens, it included no OECD member countries as they were now all considered to have engaged in

2312-530: The accounting flows from BEPS tools are "out-of-proportion" and thus distort the economic statistics of the haven. The FSF–IMF list captured new corporate tax havens, such as the Netherlands, which Hines considered too small in 1994. In April 2007, the IMF used a more quantitative approach to generate a list of 22 major OFCs , and in 2018 listed the eight major OFCs who handle 85% of all flows. From about 2010, tax academics considered OFCs and tax havens to be synonymous terms . In October 2010, Hines published

2380-614: The artificial debt-to-GDP). This can lead to severe credit cycles and/or property/banking crises when international capital flows are repriced. Ireland's Celtic Tiger , and the subsequent financial crisis in 2009–13, is an example. Jersey is another. Research shows § U.S. as the largest beneficiary , and use of tax havens by U.S corporates maximised U.S. exchequer receipts. Historical focus on combating tax havens (e.g. OECD– IMF projects) had been on common standards, transparency and data sharing. The rise of OECD-compliant corporate tax havens, whose BEPS tools were responsible for most of

2448-504: The autonomous community it governs. The autonomy statutes in Spain have the rank of ley orgánica (organic law), a category of special legislation reserved only for the main institutions and issues and mentioned in the constitution (the highest ranking legal instrument in Spain). Leyes orgánicas rank between the constitution and ordinary laws. The name was chosen, among others, to avoid confusion with

2516-454: The case of British Empire–related tax havens, do not have a senior OECD member at their core. Some have suffered setbacks during various OECD initiatives to curb tax havens (e.g. Vanuatu and Samoa). However, others such as Taiwan (for AsiaPAC), and Mauritius (for Africa), have grown materially in the past decades. Taiwan has been described as "Switzerland of Asia", with a focus on secrecy. Although no Emerging market-related tax haven ranks in

2584-477: The code will thenceforth reflect the current cumulative state of the statutory law in that jurisdiction. In many nations statutory law is distinguished from and subordinate to constitutional law . The term statute is also used to refer to an International treaty that establishes an institution , such as the Statute of the European Central Bank , a protocol to the international courts as well, such as

2652-433: The concept of voting trusts to the jurisdiction. The Act was passed into law by the Territory's legislature on 15 August 1984 where Chief Minister Cyril Romney hailed it as the most important legislation of the decade. Initially, market response to the legislation was slow, but by 1988 a steady core of incorporation work was evident. However, in 1990 the U.S. invaded Panama and arrested General Manuel Noriega . At

2720-494: The countries that received more than one US tax inversion since 1982 (see here ). In addition, six of these major tax havens are in the top 15 GDP-per-capita , and of the four others, three of them, the Caribbean locations, are not included in IMF-World Bank GDP-per-capita tables. In a June 2018 joint IMF report into the effect of BEPS flows on global economic data, eight of the above (excluding Switzerland and

2788-1169: The end of banking secrecy in many jurisdictions including Switzerland following the passing of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and the adoption of the CRS by most countries, including typical tax havens, a multilateral automatic taxpayer data exchange agreement, initiative of the OCDE . CRS countries require banks and other entities to identify the residence of account holders, beneficial owners of corporate entities and record yearly account balances and communicate such information to local tax agencies, which will report back to tax agencies where account holders or beneficial owners of corporations reside. CRS intends to end offshore financial secrecy and tax evasion giving tax agencies knowledge to tax offshore income and assets. However very large and complex corporations, like multinationals , can still shift profits to corporate tax havens using intricate schemes. Traditional tax havens, like Jersey , are open about zero rates of taxation – as

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2856-508: The exigencies of the moment. Eventually, persons trying to find the law are forced to sort through an enormous number of statutes enacted at various points in time to determine which portions are still in effect. The solution adopted in many countries is to organize existing statutory law in topical arrangements (or "codified" ) within publications called codes , then ensure that new statutes are consistently drafted so that they add, amend, repeal or move various code sections. In turn, in theory,

2924-460: The financial media, particularly when it lists the US and Germany as major "secrecy jurisdictions". However, many types of tax havens also rank as secrecy jurisdictions. While tax havens are diverse and varied, tax academics sometimes recognise three major "groupings" of tax havens when discussing the history of their development: As discussed in § History , the first recognized tax haven hub

2992-403: The five major global Conduit OFCs or any § Top 10 tax havens lists, both Taiwan and Mauritius rank in the top ten global Sink OFCs. Three main types of tax haven lists have been produced to date: Research also highlights proxy indicators , of which the two most prominent are: The post-2010 rise in quantitative techniques of identifying tax havens has resulted in a more stable list of

3060-415: The form of a series of books whose content is limited to legislative acts. In either form, statutes are traditionally published in chronological order based on date of enactment. A universal problem encountered by lawmakers throughout human history is how to organize published statutes. Such publications have a habit of starting small but growing rapidly over time, as new statutes are enacted in response to

3128-476: The global flows to tax havens, with three of the five major global Conduit OFCs being European (i.e. the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Ireland). Four European-related tax havens appear in the various notable § Top 10 tax havens lists, namely: the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. Many tax havens are former or current dependencies of the United Kingdom and still use the same core legal structures. Six British Empire–related tax havens appear in

3196-498: The haven has tax treaties; putting them on tax haven lists. According to modern studies, the § Top 10 tax havens include corporate-focused havens like the Netherlands, Singapore, Ireland, and the U.K., while Luxembourg, Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, and Switzerland feature as both major traditional tax havens and major corporate tax havens. Corporate tax havens often serve as "conduits" to traditional tax havens. Use of tax havens results in

3264-522: The largest tax havens. Dharmapala notes that as corporate BEPS flows dominate tax haven activity, these are mostly corporate tax havens. Nine of the top ten tax havens in Gabriel Zucman 's June 2018 study also appear in the top ten lists of the two other quantitative studies since 2010. Four of the top five Conduit OFCs are represented; however, the UK only transformed its tax code in 2009–2012. All five of

3332-491: The lost taxes, led to criticism of this approach, versus actual taxes paid. Higher-tax jurisdictions, such as the United States and many member states of the European Union, departed from the OECD BEPS Project in 2017–18 to introduce anti-BEPS tax regimes, targeted raising net taxes paid by corporations in corporate tax havens (e.g. the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 ("TCJA") GILTI–BEAT–FDII tax regimes and move to

3400-419: The old legislation to adapt to the new legislation without having to significantly amend their constitutional documents . The International Business Companies Act was then finally repealed in full on 31 December 2006. A special arrangement between the BVI government and one of the key trust companies in the Territory meant that the last company incorporated under the Act was named "The Last IBC Limited". It

3468-420: The reform of its corporate tax code in 2009–2012, the UK has re-emerged as a major corporate-focused tax haven. Two of the five major global Conduit OFCs are from this grouping (i.e. the U.K. and Singapore). In November 2009, Michael Foot, a former Bank of England official and Bahamas bank inspector, delivered an integrated report on the three British Crown Dependencies (Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey), and

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3536-497: The six Overseas Territories (Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Turks and Caicos Islands), "to identify the opportunities and challenges as offshore financial centres", for the HM Treasury . As discussed in § History , most of these tax havens date from the late 1960s and effectively copied the structures and services of the above groups. Most of these tax havens are not OECD members, or in

3604-456: The tax revenues are needed to build infrastructure. Over 15% of countries are sometimes labelled tax havens. Tax havens are mostly successful and well-governed economies, and being a haven has brought prosperity. The top 10–15 GDP-per-capita countries, excluding oil and gas exporters, are tax havens. Because of § Inflated GDP-per-capita (due to accounting BEPS flows), havens are prone to over-leverage (international capital misprice

3672-486: The term constitution (i.e. the Spanish constitution of 1978). Tax haven A tax haven is a term, often used pejoratively, to describe a place with very low tax rates for non-domiciled investors , even if the official rates may be higher. In some older definitions, a tax haven also offers financial secrecy . However, while countries with high levels of secrecy but also high rates of taxation, most notably

3740-456: The term "tax haven" and " offshore financial centre " are almost synonymous. In reality, many offshore financial centers do not have harmful tax practices and are at the forefront among financial centers regarding AML practices and international tax reporting. Developments over the past decade have substantially reduced the ability for individuals or corporations to use tax havens for tax evasion (illegal non-payment of taxes owed). These include

3808-466: The time, Panama had been one of the market leaders in the provision of offshore companies . However, the invasion badly shook investor confidence in Panama, and incorporations in the British Virgin Islands under the Act soared from 1991 onwards. From 1991 the Act was remarkably successful generating large numbers of incorporations. The Companies Registry in the Territory had to be expanded twice to cope with

3876-501: The top 5 Sink OFCs are represented, although Jersey only appears in the Hines 2010 list. The studies capture the rise of Ireland and Singapore, both major regional headquarters for some of the largest BEPS tool users, Apple , Google and Facebook . In Q1 2015, Apple completed the largest BEPS action in history, when it shifted US$ 300 billion of IP to Ireland, which Nobel-prize economist Paul Krugman called " leprechaun economics ". In September 2018, using TCJA repatriation tax data,

3944-488: The two Acts ran in parallel, and it was possible to incorporate a company under either form of legislation. from 1 January 2006 until 31 December 2006, one could no longer incorporate a company under the International Business Companies Act, and all new incorporations had to be conducted under the BVI Business Companies Act. During 2006 detailed transitional provisions were enacted to allow companies formed under

4012-448: The understanding of a tax haven into two classifications: In June 2018, tax academic Gabriel Zucman ( et alia ) published research that also ignored any definition of a tax haven, but estimated the corporate "profit shifting" (i.e. BEPS ), and "enhanced corporate profitability" that Hines and Dharmapala had noted. Zucman pointed out that the CORPNET research under-represented havens associated with US technology firms, like Ireland and

4080-591: The volume of incorporations. The Act was then copied widely by other Caribbean offshore financial centres. Despite its American focus, the key market for IBCs incorporated within the Territory developed in Hong Kong . Use of British Virgin Islands IBCs became so ubiquitous in Hong Kong, that in commercial jargon offshore companies generally were generically referred to there as "BVIs". In 2000, KPMG were commissioned by

4148-445: The world's largest tax havens is therefore: Ireland, Singapore, Switzerland and the Netherlands (the major Conduit OFCs), and the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and Bermuda (the major Sink OFCs), with the United Kingdom (a major Conduit OFC) still in transformation. Of these ten major havens, all except the United Kingdom and the Netherlands featured on the original Hines–Rice 1994 list . The United Kingdom

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4216-409: Was company number 690583. Statute The word "statute" is derived from the late Latin word "statutum", which means 'law', 'decree'. In virtually all countries, newly enacted statutes are published and distributed so that everyone can look up the statutory law. This can be done in the form of a government gazette which may include other kinds of legal notices released by the government, or in

4284-451: Was copied widely by other offshore financial centres . The Act was drafted principally by five people: Lewis Hunte, the then Attorney General of the British Virgin Islands ; Neville Westwood, Michael Riegels and Richard Peters, who were partners at the law firm, Harneys ; and Paul Butler, a partner from the U.S. law firm of Shearman & Sterling . The Act was subsequently amended several times, but most significantly in 1990. The Act

4352-435: Was exempt from all forms of British Virgin Islands taxation and stamp duty . Parts of the Act were quite radical for the time. The Act abolished the concept of ultra vires for companies, considerably restricted the requirement for corporate benefit , it permitted companies to change their corporate domicile from one jurisdiction to another, it allowed "true merger " of two different corporate entities, and introduced

4420-562: Was not a tax haven in 1994, and Hines estimated the Netherlands's effective tax rate in 1994 at over 20%. (Hines identified Ireland as having the lowest effective tax rate at 4%.) Four of these: Ireland, Singapore, Switzerland (3 of the 5 top Conduit OFCs), and Hong Kong (a top 5 Sink OFC), featured in the Hines–Rice 1994 list's 7 major tax havens subcategory; highlighting a lack of progress in curtailing tax havens. In terms of proxy indicators , this list, excluding Canada, contains all seven of

4488-425: Was passed in a partial response to the cancellation by the U.S. government of a double taxation relief treaty between the British Virgin Islands and the United States. The British Virgin Islands was not alone in this regard; this was part of a policy of mass-repeal by the United States of double tax relief treaties with " microstates ". Despite the British Virgin Islands being an English common law jurisdiction,

4556-474: Was the Zurich-Zug-Liechtenstein triangle created in the mid-1920s, later joined by Luxembourg in 1929. Privacy and secrecy were established as an important aspect of European tax havens. However, modern European tax havens also include corporate-focussed tax havens, which maintain higher levels of OECD transparency, such as the Netherlands and Ireland. European tax havens act as an important part of

4624-460: Was withdrawn after objections from the new U.S. Bush Administration in 2001, and in the OECD's 2002 report the definition became "two of three criteria". The 1998 OECD definition is most frequently invoked by the "OECD tax havens". However, that definition (as noted above) lost credibility when, in 2017, under its parameters, only Trinidad & Tobago qualified as a tax haven and has since been largely discounted by tax haven academics, including

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