Offshore tax havens that refused to pass information on tax dodgers faced an unprecedented economic sanctions by the world’s most powerful countries, which will be probably agreed at the G20 summit in London in April this year.
As a result of the campaign Britain could target some of its own offshore territories, including the Cayman and the British Virgin Islands, where British banks and corporations use scores of subsidiaries to avoid taxation. The blacklisting threat has come after opposition politicians in the UK called for a review of the tax haven dealings by banks.
After the G20 preparatory summit in Berlin, the new list of uncooperative tax havens will be prepared. Other leading offshore centers, among them Panama and Liechtenstein, are among more than 30 jurisdictions that have failed to sign agreement to pass over information about corporations and individuals who take advantage of their secrecy and their low taxes. British Virgin Islands are not among them.
Earlier lists which were prepared by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) did not bring any changes, but now the G20 nations plan to promote a series of sanctions which are designed to deprive the tax havens of billions of dollars of their business.