Showing posts with label US tax breaks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US tax breaks. Show all posts

Sunday, February 25, 2018

25/2/2018: Tax Havens and Financial Secrecy ca 2018


The notion of what defines a tax haven is a complex one and does not easily lend itself to a precise definition. This presents numerous problems. As a personal example is an academic paper that I am currently working on with three other co-authors in which we had to use several different definitions of tax havens, primarily because the official (OECD) designations were so deeply politicized as to exclude a wide range of countries.

Tax Justice Network this week published its Financial Secrecy Index (https://www.financialsecrecyindex.com/). The Index is based on 20 tax policy-specific indicators, which are described here (https://www.financialsecrecyindex.com/introduction/method-and-concepts) and in broad terms provides a view of just how open the country is to facilitating tax avoidance or tax evasion through its financial laws, regulations and systems. The 20 indicators are:

  • Banking secrecy
  • Wealth Ownership disclosures, covering: existence of a public Trust and Foundations Register, Recording of Company Ownership disclosures, and Other Wealth Ownership
  • Limited Partnership Transparency, Public Company Ownership, Public Company Accounts
  • Country-by-Country Reporting, and Corporate Tax Disclosure, Legal Entity Identifier, and Tax Administration Capacity
  • Consistent Personal Income Tax
  • Does the jurisdiction facilitate tax avoidance and encourage tax competition with its treatment of capital income in local income tax law? Is there tax court secrecy, and are there harmful tax structures, e.g. bearer shares; use of large banknotes, existence of trusts with flee clauses, etc
  • Public Statistics disclosures about international financial, trade, investment and tax position
  • Anti - Money Laundering regime 
  • Automatic Information Exchange, Bilateral Treaties, and International Legal Cooperation
Using the methodology described in the above link, the Tax Justice Network arrive at the country rankings in terms of how open the country system is to facilitation of tax avoidance and evasion, including through provision of financial secrecy and non-disclosure facilities that help international companies and investors avoid tax payments in their jurisdictions of origin.

The results are surprising, because they stand in a stark contrast to politically sanitized version of tax avoidance lists published by the likes of the toothless and politically controlled OECD:


Here's the top shocker: the U.S. - a country that routinely bullies other jurisdictions when it comes to extracting tax data that serves the American own purposes is number two most active tax avoidance facilitation countries in the world.  Germany, another stalwart of anti-tax avoidance rhetoric and co-sponsor of the OECD's BEPS anti-tax avoidance process alongside the U.S. is ranked number 7. Japan is number 13. Canada is number 21. And so on.

Another surprise, Ireland - previously ranked 37th in 2015 Index, with a secrecy score of 40 (see https://www.financialsecrecyindex.com/Archive2015/CountryReports/Ireland.pdf), the country is now ranked 26th, with a secrecy score of 51 (this year's country report here: https://www.financialsecrecyindex.com/PDF/Ireland.pdf). In other words, things are not quite improving for Ireland.

A third surprise is Lichtenstein. This country has been commonly accused of being a major secrecy tax haven for financial flows, quite often, without any serious consideration of the more recent reforms in the country's financial services sector. Yet, Lichtenstein ranks lowly 46th in the index, just below Norway. IN the same vein, Cyprus - that has been effectively labeled a dirty money Island for Russian mobsters during 2011 financial restructuring episode - ranks reasonably low at 24th place, well better than Germany - a country from which these accusations originated.

These, and other considerations, arising from the Index results should remind us of the complexity involved in assessing the extent of financial and tax systems facilitation of illicit and ethically questionable activities. Tax havens come in all forms and shapes, some benign, others damaging to the socio-economic environments, many having an adverse impact only in the long run.

It is quite easy for the media to label a jurisdiction a safe haven for crime. It is much harder to establish an empirical basis to either support or reject such a label.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Economics 26/06/09: US Personal Income

US Personal Income increased $167.1bn, (+1.4%), and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $178.1bn, (+1.6%) in May, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $25.1bn, (+0.3%). In April (revised estimates), personal income increased $78.3bn, or 0.7%, DPI increased $140.0bn, or 1.3%, and PCE increased $1.0bn, or less than 0.1%. But don’t hold your breath for the trumpets of recovery: per BEA “the pattern of changes in personal income and in DPI reflect, in part, the pattern of increased government social benefit payments associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009”.

How big is this ‘in part’? Provisions of the Act reduced personal current taxes and increased government social benefit payments. The ARRA of 2009 provides for one-time payment of $250 to eligible individuals receiving social security, supplemental security income, veterans benefits, and railroad retirement benefits. These benefits boosted the level of personal current transfer receipts by $157.6bn at an annual rate in May.

Excluding these special factors, which are discussed more fully below, DPI increased $20.6bn, or 0.2%, in May, following an increase of $101.3bn, or 0.9%, in April. So things are getting worse not better. Uncle Sam is doing the job (no hope here for Ireland), but any real (non-fiscal stimulus) growth is still way off.

  • Private wage and salary disbursements decreased $12.4bn in May, compared with a decrease of $0.7bn in April = DOWN trend
  • Goods-producing industries' payrolls decreased $12.9bn, compared with a decrease of $12.2bn = DOWN trend;
  • Services-producing industries' payrolls increased $0.5bn, compared with an increase of $11.5 bn = DOWN trend.
  • Government wage and salary disbursements increased $3.9bn, compared with an increase of $5.7bn = DOWN trend.
  • Supplements to wages and salaries increased $3.3bn in May, compared with an increase of $3.9bn in April = DOWN trend.
  • Proprietors' income increased $0.4bn in May, compared with an increase of $3.1bn in April = DOWN trend.
  • Nonfarm proprietors' income decreased $0.2bn, in contrast to an increase of $0.5 bn = DOWN trend.
  • Rental income of persons increased $5.2bn in May, compared with an increase of $4.9bn in April = UP trend.
  • Personal income receipts on assets (personal interest income plus personal dividend income) increased $2.5bn, compared with an increase of $2.6bn = slight DOWN trend.
Good news, Americans are paying less in taxes: Personal current taxes fell $11.1bn in May, compared with a decrease of $61.6bn in April. The Making Work Pay Credit provision of the ARRA of 2009 (allowing a refundable tax credit of up to $400 for working individuals and up to $800 for married taxpayers filing joint returns) reduced personal current taxes by $49.8bn at an annual rate in both May and April, and $11.2bn in March.

Thus, disposable personal income (DPI) -- personal income less personal current taxes -- increased $178.1bn (+1.6%) in May, compared with an increase of $140.0bn (+1.3%) in April. So here we do have a meaningful improvement.

And that was reflected in personal outlays too. Personal outlays increased $17.9bn in May, in contrast to a decrease of $6.3bn in April. PCE increased $25.1bn compared with an increase of $1.0bn.

Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays -- was $768.8bn in May, compared with $608.5bn in April. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 6.9% in May, compared with 5.6% in April. Precautionary savings motive is still working through American balance sheets, but consumption is sloping up and loans repayments are going on still at a healthy rate. America is saving, deleveraging and getting better, although for now primarily thanks to tax-cutting and stimulus spending Federal Government…