On May 30, 2018 we posted The Us Is Now The 2nd Largest Tax Haven And Is Scheduled To Be Blacklisted By The Eu!, where we discussed that the U.S. is the world’s second-largest tax haven, behind Switzerland and just ahead of the Cayman Islands, according to a report released May 15, 2018.
Now according to the Tax Justice Network the U.S. is considered the best country in the world in which to hide income from tax and government authorities, according to this year's index unveiled on Tuesday May 18, 2022 listing the most financially secretive jurisdictions.
The U.S. has risen to the top of the index that identifies jurisdictions "most complicit in helping individuals to hide their finances from the rule of law," according to the Tax Justice Network, a U.K.-based organization that says its goal is to fight injustice in tax systems.
The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency, or FACT, Coalition held a panel discussion to discuss the latest annual TJN index with officials from both organizations and Global Financial Integrity, a research group based in Washington, D.C.
A statement from the FACT Coalition suggested that the U.S. position at the top of the index is due to "unaddressed loopholes and lax rules in U.S. anti-money laundering and tax laws."
The U.S. was considered the second-best jurisdiction in which to hide money based on the Tax Justice Network's 2020 data, but the FACT Coalition said the U.S. has since taken steps to try to improve its anti-money laundering enforcement. Those include enacting legislation known as the Corporate Transparency Act, which will establish reporting requirements for certain beneficial owners.
That legislation is designed to create a national beneficial ownership registry, and to combat, to the broadest extent possible, the proliferation of anonymous shell companies that facilitate the flow and sheltering of illicit money in the U.S.
Although that legislation has been enacted, the entirety of implementing regulations has yet to be issued by the U.S. Treasury Department, the coalition noted in its release. Treasury issued the first set of rules on the CTA in December.
Read more at: Tax Times blog
