What is BahamasLeaks?
Is the name with which are known the close to 1.3 million documents from the companies registry of the Bahamas obtained by the German newspaper ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’. Include information about 175.888 companies, trust and foundations registered in the Bahamas between 1990 and 2016, and its nearly 25,000 directors and secretaries. The societies were incorporated into the record by 539 intermediaries are different, as the firm Mossack Fonseca and the banks UBS and Credit Suisse the most active.
Close to 100 journalists, among them THE NATION, they analyzed these data -a total of 38 GB of information, which will be published in their entirety in a public database. A job that will give anyone the chance to dive between the names of directors and owners of companies who have settled in this opaque jurisdiction in the caribbean.
what Is the Bahamas ‘paradise tax’?
to Register a company in Nassau, capital of Bahamas, allows you to have more relaxation in the controls on the origin of the money, greater freedom to dispose of funds, opacity and confidentiality, according to the opinion of all the experts consulted.
For the European Commission, the lack of transparency and the absence of a corporate tax in the Bahamas are two indicators of risk for tax evasion. In fact, in 2015, the EC considered the Bahamas as one of the countries ‘non-cooperators’.
The Bahamas are, in addition, one of the few countries who have refused, to date, to sign the global agreement that imposed by the automatic exchange of information between countries established by the OECD, although they have pledged to rubricarlo in 2018. More than 103 jurisdictions share the Common Reporting Standard, thanks to which, from 2017, the tax information is relevant, will pass from country to country automatically.
The Government of Nassau has been limited, for the moment, to sign direct agreements with 28 countries of the world. In Latin America, the Bahamas has agreements only with Argentina and Mexico. Until the year 2001, the Bahamas was in the “black list” of tax havens developed by the OECD. Came out of the same after the removal of the ‘bearer shares’ (titles which simple physical possession accredits participation in a society), but in 2009 he returned to enter on a “grey list” drawn up by the same agency.
What personalities appear in BahamasLeaks?
In Argentina are the environments of president Mauricio Macri and former president Fernando de la Rúa, as well as data on major local employers, including signatures associated with Bulgheroni, Blaquier, Tabanelli, Garfunkel and Techint Group.
In Europe, the research reveals the offshore company of Neelie Kroes, european commissioner for Competition until 2010 and for the Digital Agenda until 2014. Known for his heavy hand with the taxes the multinationals, never made public its signature opaque. After leaving the european institutions, in July of this year he signed a contract with the multinational Über. But there are also political and important figures in other countries, as described here.
why is it important to BahamasLeaks?
The companies registry of the Bahamas is public on the internet. However, it includes information and residual out-of-date on the societies, and in many cases does not allow access to the names of the owners of the same. In addition, gathering information has a cost of about $ 10 per document. As has been able to verify a journalist of the consortium that went to the offices of Nassau, and the amount of documents that can be accessed ‘online’ is a tiny part of that can be done in person.
as of today, it will become public information on the name of each society, its creation date, and the directors of the companies. This content will be published in a public database where they intersect with the information from the papers of Panama: on this web page will be available the information of close to half a million societies ‘offshore’.
What is a tax haven?
these Are places where the creation of corporations is one of the main, if not the only, industry of the country. For example, in the Cayman Islands there are two companies registered for each inhabitant. Its success lies in the enormous tax advantages that citizens of other countries can obtain by using these companies, and banking secrecy, necessary to conceal property or assets to the tax authorities of each country.
there is Not a comprehensive list of official tax havens. Each country decides for itself with which jurisdictions signed tax treaties or exchange of information, which has allowed the OECD to eliminate around thirty countries from its list of states ‘non-cooperators’ foundation.
What connection has this case with Panama Papers?
The medium that she decided to share the information with the consortium, the German ‘Suddeütsche Zeitung’, is the same as in the case of the Panama Papers. In that case, it was the internal information of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, one of the largest in the world in the creation of societies ‘offshore’. Their activity is reflected in BahamasLeaks, as the firm panamanian created 15.915 entities in the Bahamas. This is the third jurisdiction to favourite of the firm to create societies that help their clients to hide from the authorities of each country.
however, the internal information of the firm Mossack Fonseca was much more rich. Included documents of creation of the company and internal emails from the bank. In the case of BahamasLeaks, this is basic information that is key to follow the trail of a society that, normally, you could not know anything. It is for this reason that this basic information will be made public.
Is it illegal to have a society in a tax haven?
No. It is legal as long as the beneficiary declare the society to the tax authorities of the country in which it resides.
This note was posted by Daniele Grasso at the digital newspaper El confidencial (Spain)
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