Ok

By continuing your visit to this site, you accept the use of cookies. These ensure the smooth running of our services. Learn more.

03/18/2009

The less you contribute to OECD budget the more influence you have on the policies

The Tagesanzeiger has reported that OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría provided a new list, on which financial centres with banking secrecy, such as Switzerland, Luxembourg and Austria, are optically separate from the tax havens.

According to the OECD, tax havens would be:
Andorra
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Aruba
Bahrain
Belize
Bermuda
BVI
Cayman Iceland
Cook Iceland
Dominica
Gibraltar
Grenada
Guernsey
Jersey
Liberia
Liechtenstein
Marshal Islands
Monaco
Montserrat
Nauru
Netherlands Antilles
Niue
Panama
Saint Lucia
Saint of cement and Nevis
Saint Vincent and Grenadinen
Samoa
San Marino
The Bahamas
Turks and Caicos Islands
Vanuatu

According to the OECD, Financial centers would be:
Austria
Belgium

Brunei
Chile
Costa Rica
Guatemala
Hong Kong, China
Luxembourg
Macao, China
Malaysia (lab SCN)
Singapore
Switzerland
The Philippines
Uruguay


The idea of splitting meets my idea of black list and grey list, but the way it was done raises a question of governance at the OECD:

As the Tagesanzeiger explained, the splitting was made under the pressure of representatives from Switzerland, Luxembourg and Austria that only said they will cooperate : but there a difference between announcements and actual implementation of the commitments.

This means that the three jurisdictions that represent less than 3% of the OECD budget would decide of the standards and policies of the OECD regarding harmful tax practices and other connected matters (corruption, or money laundering in the framework of the FATF that has the same contribution shares as the OECD).

There respective Contribution share in percentage is the following:
Switzerland: 1.5
Austria: 1.146
Luxembourg: 0.216


Total: 2.862 % of the OECD budget.


When looking carefully the lists, it appears that
- every OECD member is in the good list ; in other word no OECD member is a tax haven.
- there are many inconsistencies in the List: what about the Seychelles, Delaware... for the tax havens list? What about the City... for the financial centers list?



07:12 Posted in General | Permalink | Comments (1)

Comments

An interestingly skewed list - No surprises there then!!!

Posted by: Charles O'S | 03/18/2009

The comments are closed.