EUROPE-FINANCE: EU Tax Havens Prove Troublesome to Brussels

PARIS, Nov 26 (IPS) - Europe's criminal syndicates need no longer look to the Third World for a place to launder their ill-gotten gains -- there are many accessible tax havens with 'flexible' banks much closer to home.

Despite the widely-held belief that a handful of states in the Third World have become havens for criminal proceeds and political slush funds, police and magistrates are increasingly finding the criminal trail leads in and out of Europe's own tax havens.

And though most point to Luxembourg and Switzerland the main tax havens in Europe there are others which have an international reputation similar to the Caribbean haven of the Cayman Islands.

According to French law professor Thierry Lambert, the European Union is a leopard skin -- where each spot represents a territory with a privileged tax system.

Lambert, author of the book 'Fiscal control in Law and Practice', told IPS that not even the European Commission itself knows how many tax havens exist in Europe let alone the investments they bring in to each respective country.

The amount of money involved is huge because many states in the Union are creating tax havens within their own borders and go to great lengths to publish glossy guides which indicate the best havens in which to invest.

Well-known tax havens in the European domain include the Canary Islands, the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey, Gibraltar, Andorra, San Marino and Liechtenstein.

While those in the West Indies include the Turcos and Caicos islands, the Virgin Islands and the Dutch West Indies.

Other less well known tax havens within the European Union are Madeira, the 'General Quarters' of Brussels, the Centre of International Financial Services in Dublin and the French industrial zones of Dunkerque, La Seyne and La Ciotat.

Each one of these tax havens apply different regulations regarding exemption from taxes for individuals and companies which includes tax rebates on capital.

The states apply the principle of tax exemption in the specially created havens with the sole aim of attracting investments from residents of neighbouring countries -- but without letting their own citizens enjoy the same privileges. At the same time they set up a whole series of measures to check tax evasion.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service