Thinking of hiding your illegal offshore funds in a tax haven?
Think again. Tax havens are an endangered species. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is attempting to shine a halogen lamp on the opaque world of tax havens, and has recommended that its members intensify information exchanges with tax havens and preferential tax regimes. Leonel Fernandes, MD of Meritor International Wealth Management Services, says the OECD also recommends its members adopt protective legislation and consider terminating treaties they might have with tax havens.
“The OECD is continuing to develop strategies for its members to combat the illegal withholding of due revenue and the wider danger that is the destabilisation of the international financial order. The days of the tax haven are surely numbered,” says Fernandes.
“There are of course legitimate offshore investments made for legitimate reasons that are properly reported. However, the problem of some who presently hold offshore investments is not only their failure to disclose, it is the fact that exchange regulations in force were circumvented and the individuals concerned may have committed a crime, unbeknown to them, and could now face serious charges and possibly incarceration.
“It is therefore important that anyone who feels that he may have contravened regulations should take advantage of this amnesty, consult with an expert confidentially as provided by the amnesty and forever divest himself of the risk of criminal prosecution for having unlawfully expatriated funds.”