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I must admit I don't have an excellent understanding of the relative merits of the various tax havens. From my own experience (in my job, rather than through my own offshore investments) Panama is used quite extensively by British high net worth individuals for tax efficiency purposes. I do a lot of research on BVI and Panama registered companies and public information is very difficult to come by.
The Guardian and the BBC are focusing on the Russian connection (Putin's corrupt - no shit), and I've read somewhere that they are the only British outlets with access to a searchable directory of the leaked documents. The American news networks are largely ignoring it. I'm just wondering who has a vested interest in fingers being pointed in particular directions.
As an aside I'm also trying to figure out why the Arab oil barons keep offshore accounts when they own everything in their countries and don't pay tax anyway. I assume it's more for money laundering purposes than tax evasion/avoidance?
spiderpie-
The American news networks are largely ignoring it.
The releases so far haven't included any US individuals yet. Yet.
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As an aside I'm also trying to figure out why the Arab oil barons keep offshore accounts when they own everything in their countries and don't pay tax anyway. I assume it's more for money laundering purposes than tax evasion/avoidance?
Political instability at home and it creates a buffer for dealing with other nations/individuals without raising too many eyebrows.
Greenbank
Well_is_it
It's a hunch, but I suspect that London is a pretty good place to be if you want to find ways of hiding money. Jersey and Man aren't too far away either. If I was a wealthy immoral Brit, that's probably where I'd be putting my money. If I were an autocrat stealing from my own people, however, I'd be keeping the money as far away from Western scrutiny as possible. Not because we're "better," but because it's quite possible we'll take the money if we find it.