It’s a global data leak. The leak shows how the wealthy and powerful are continuing to use offshore tax havens to hide their ownership of assets and stash their cash, despite attempts to reign in the industry. It’s estimated up to a tenth of the world’s wealth is parked in offshore financial centres, costing governments hundreds of billions of dollars in lost tax revenue each year.
The reasons for the popularity of such offshore money havens are myriad some of which are: 1. Tax evasion as distinct from tax avoidance, the latter being legal, using loopholes in tax laws. 2. Proceeds of crime and money laundering. 3. Keeping even legally obtained wealth from prying eyes through untraceable shell companies. Super rich Indians - businessmen and politicians - are definitely in the vanguard of all these tax dodgers, though I am sure Arab rulers and sheiks run neck to neck. The Arab motivation is not to avoid taxes but to either hide their enormous wealth illegally obtained from the national treasury (King Abdulla II of Jordan) or the Gulf Arab rulers who want to keep it safe from fear of seizure when they have to finally flee their countries. Roland. Toronto.
