Panama Tax Haven being Scrutinized
December 6, 2008
by La Prensa
In La Prensa an interesting article published December 1st confirms a story we had head that some high end economic organizations were scrutinizing Panama's status as a tax have. Due to recent events in Lichenstein and UBS in switzerland there has been talks that the days of tax havens may soon be a thing of the past. As this article from la prensa expresses:
economy
Panama’s status as tax haven scrutinized
An international group seeks to make Panama less attractive to money launderers.
| la prensa |
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| panama, a tax paradise |
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) has spent a little over a decade campaigning against
tax havens and is now working closely with these enclaves in the hopes
of ensuring the practice of transparency standards and open exchange of
information concerning possible criminal activities.
A recent report by the organization found that Panama,
the Cayman Islands, Samoa and the Bahamas, belong to a group of
notorious tax paradises that continue to be lax on complying with the
standards that they agreed to upon joining the list of cooperating
countries.
According to Jeffrey Owens, director of the Center for
Tax Administration at the OECD, the tax havens located in developing
countries that attract money without levying taxes are depriving poorer
nations of income needed to weather the global economic crisis.
For that reason, all countries considered tax havens,
which includes a growing list of countries and principalities could
face more pressure from industrialized nations as the economic squeeze
obliges governments to seek more sources of money.
Also under scrutiny by the OECD are the
principalities of Liechtenstein and Monaco and Andorra, territories
long-sought by illustrious tax evaders and money launderers.
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