Showing posts with label Liechtenstein. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liechtenstein. Show all posts
August 17, 2016
Brexit: Could Liechtenstein Be a Model for the UK? - BBC Newsnight
March 27, 2013
August 18, 2009
YNET NEWS: Germany's Central Council of Jews accuses Prince Hans-Adam II of making a 'mockery' of Holocaust by saying bank secrecy in his principality helped save many Jews during WWII
Germany's Central Council of Jews has accused Liechtenstein's Prince Hans-Adam II of making a "mockery" of the Holocaust by saying bank secrecy in his principality had helped save many Jews during World War II.
The prince made the comments in an interview with the Liechtensteiner Volksblatt newspaper, saying Liechtenstein and Switzerland had "saved the lives of many people, especially Jews" thanks to their bank secrecy laws.
He added Germany "should think about its own past" before attacking Liechtenstein and other countries for banking policies that Berlin says encourage tax dodging.
Germany's Central Council of Jews sharply criticized the comments on Monday, describing them as a misrepresentation of the historical record.
"The comments make a mockery of the Holocaust and those that survived it," Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Council, told the Bild daily.
"It is an attempt to use the Holocaust as a defense for the prince's political failures. Portraying Liechtenstein as a merciful helper of the Jews does not chime with the historical facts."
Liechtenstein remained neutral during World War II. >>> Reuters | Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Liechtensteiner Volksblatt >>>
April 03, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: • New Financial Stability Board as global overseer • Tax havens and hedge funds to be punished • Heavy scrutiny for banks
Gordon Brown and his fellow world leaders have pledged the biggest crackdown on tax havens, hedge funds and banks in modern history as the price to be paid for the multi-trillion dollar bail-out of the world economy.
"The era of banking secrecy is over", the Prime Minister declared, as the Group of 20 leading nations agreed to impose a new range of regulations on banks and non-bank financial institutions as a punishment for contributing to the crisis.
Harsh fines and sanctions will be levied on tax havens that refuse to publish details of their accounts; hedge funds will have to provide more detailed accounts in the future; and bankers will have their bonuses more heavily controlled and taxed throughout the world, the communique pledged.
The range of new regulations will be implemented by national governments in the coming months, officials said, after the G20 agreed on more significant and far-reaching reforms than had been expected.
In what will be interpreted as a victory for the French and German factions, which had emphasised the importance of regulation over new fiscal giveaways, the G20 also ordered the creation of a new Financial Stability Board dedicated to monitoring leverage and inter-connectedness of international financial institutions. >>> By Edmund Conway Economics Editor | Friday, April 3, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: G20 Summit: Blacklisted Tax Havens Face Sanctions
Tax havens that refuse to sign anti-secrecy agreements face expensive sanctions under an unprecedented global effort to catch illegal tax evaders.
Switzerland, Singapore, the Cayman Islands, Monaco, Luxembourg and Hong Kong are among 45 territories blacklisted on Thursday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and now threatened with punitive financial retaliation for their banking secrecy.
Among the sanctions being considered by the G20 are the scrapping of tax treaty arrangements, imposing additional taxes on companies that operate in non-compliant countries, and tougher disclosure requirements for individuals and businesses that use shelters.
Of the offending jurisdictions, 40 "have committed to the internationally agreed tax standard" but have yet to implement it. Only Costa Rica, Malaysia, Philippines and Uruguay have refused to sign up altogether. Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are fully compliant already.
Illegal tax evasion through offshore shelters has been a long-standing irritation for Gordon Brown, President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. An estimated $7 trillion of assets are held offshore and, according to pressure group Tax Justice Network, developed countries lose $180bn a year in evaded taxes. >>> By Philip Aldrick, Banking Editor | Friday, April 3, 2009
March 04, 2008
THE INDEPENDENT: The European Union will declare war today on Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra and Switzerland. Weary of losing billions of tax euros, the EU's 27-strong high command of economics and finance ministers, Ecofin, is meeting in Brussels to agree a strategy aimed at bringing the continent's tax havens under control.
Their weapon of choice will be a strengthened version of the EU's 2005 savings tax directive, which has proved pathetically easy for armies of accountants, lawyers and specialist tax planners to outflank.
Urged on by Peer Steinbruck, the German Finance Minister, the new directive will seek to close the loopholes. Mr Steinbruck says tax evasion costs Germany about €30bn (£23bn) a year in lost revenue; the UK loses a similar sum; the EU may lose €100bn (£77bn) in all.
The stakes are high. But tax experts remain sceptical about the prospects for this new offensive. Mike Warburton, senior tax partner at Grant Thornton accountants, commented yesterday that, while he and his firm condemned tax evasion, which is illegal, "tax avoidance is the second oldest profession in the world, and just as difficult to control. The tax havens will survive. There are stacks of money out there. If they close down the ones in Europe, the money will move to Dubai and Singapore". Europe vs the super-rich >>> By Sean O'Grady, Economics Editor | Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
February 27, 2008
TIMESONLINE: The day that Toytown went to war, the traffic stopped. For more than a week Liechtenstein (population 35,000) and Germany (population 82 million) have been locked in an extraordinary row involving spies, bankers, a whistle-blower with a shady past, a furious prince – and tens of thousands of well-heeled but anonymous tax evaders. From Britain, from the United States, but, above all, from Germany.
This strange international flare-up is having its effects on the cramped streets of Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. The Mercedes Sclass limos that usually convey wealthy Germans and their earnings to one of the safest tax havens in Europe have disappeared from public view. The German taxpayer is running scared.
“If you listen to people at home, in the office, in the pubs, it is clear that Liechtenstein is bubbling with rage, boiling over,” says Günther Fritz, editor of theLiechtensteiner Vaterland. “We can’t be treated like this.” Spies, whistle-blowers and threats: tax haven is called to account >>> By Roger Boyes in Vaduz
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
February 23, 2008
BBC: Walking around Liechtenstein for the first time, there are two things that strike me most about this place: manure and money.
The smell of manure - that comes from the farmland that surrounds this rural principality.
The money… well, you can see that from all the shiny banks and investment firms that jostle for space in the capital, Vaduz.
These are the companies that have made Liechtenstein one of the richest states in Europe.
Secretive
Liechtenstein also has the reputation of being one of the most secretive tax havens in the world.
Just ask the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
This financial watchdog says Liechtenstein is one of only three states left on its blacklist of "uncooperative tax havens" (the others are not a million miles away - Monaco and Andorra).
Liechtenstein this week attacked the authorities in Berlin for buying information on German businessmen clients that have bank accounts in the tiny Alpine principality.
Germany has launched a tax evasion investigation using the data, which was supplied by an anonymous informant who was reportedly paid 5m euros (£3.75m; $7.3m). Liechtenstein fury at German tax snoop >>> By Steven Rosenberg
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
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