For $70K a Night, You Can Rent Liechtenstein

Böses Omen für Schweizer Banken: Liechtenstein wird den USA Amtshilfe bei Steuerhinterziehung gewähren
NZZ am Sonntag: Das Fürstentum macht weitgehende Konzessionen beim Bankgeheimnis, weil seine Banken eine Verlängerung eines wichtigen Abkommens mit den USA benötigen. Die Schweiz könnte in dieselbe Lage geraten.

Am Montag will das Fürstentum Liechtenstein ein Steuerabkommen mit den USA unterzeichnen, das die bisherige Politik des Ländles auf den Kopf stellt. «Auf Anfrage werden bei Steuerdelikten – also auch Steuerhinterziehung – Informationen zur Verfügung gestellt, sofern die Anfrage auf einem begründeten Verdacht basiert», sagt Gerlinde Manz-Christ, die Regierungssprecherin des Ländles.

Damit geht das Fürstentum deutlich über die Zusammenarbeit in Steuerfragen hinaus, welche die Schweiz den USA anbietet. Das Doppelbesteuerungsabkommen USA-Schweiz sieht lediglich Hilfe in Fällen von Steuerbetrug vor, nicht aber beim weit häufigeren Tatbestand der Steuerhinterziehung. Das jetzige Abkommen sei das Resultat von über zwei Jahre dauernden Verhandlungen, sagt Manz-Christ. «Für die Umsetzung wird Liechtenstein nächstes Jahr die nötigen gesetzlichen Grundlagen schaffen.» >>> Markus Städeli | 7. Dezember 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch und Gebundene Ausgabe) – Versandkostenfrei innerhalb der Schweiz >>>

Liechtenstein Tax Evasion Scandal: Informant in German Investigation 'Fears' for his Life
Photo of Vaduz castle courtesy of SpiegelOnline International
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The German man who sold officials data that has sparked the biggest tax evasion investigation in German history has requested another new identity out of fears he may be killed. The man is said to be concerned that powerful foreigners and despots who held accounts at the bank may retaliate.

Heinrich Kieber, the man who sold explosive customer data (more...) from LGT bank in Liechtenstein to Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND, is fearful for his life. Kieber, who has been bestowed a new identity as part of a witness protection program, complained in a letter to the BND about the fact that his name has been exposed and is demanding another change of identity.

Kieber first took up contact with the BND in January 2006 under the codename "Julia." And he eventally [sic] sold a DVD contaning [sic] the details of 2,000 client accounts worth more than €4 billion for a reported €4.2 million ($6.47 million.)

His latest letter was sent to the BND only a few days after prosecutors raided the home and offices (more...) of Deutsche Post Chairman Klaus Zumwinkel, who would step down from his post just days later. Kieber is said to be afraid of foreign potentates who belong to LGT's roster of customers. Members of the Saudi royal family are said to be among them as well as former Indonesian dictator Suharto, who died in January and who Indonesian justice authorities claimed illegally funneled more than a billion euros into foreign accounts. Waves of Germans Turn Themselves In >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Is Time Running Out for Tax Havens such as Fürstentum Liechtenstein
Photo of Liechtenstein courtesy of the BBC
"Liechtenstein has existed for hundreds of years and weathered many storms" - Prince Max von und zu Liechtenstein
BBC: The bankers in their grey suits and silk shirts looked a bit bemused.

The annual press conference of LGT, the Liechtenstein bank at the centre of the tax evasion controversy, is usually a dull and dry affair.

But it wasn't this year. The room was packed.

And every question was about the scandal in which German intelligence purchased a data disc stolen from the bank, filled with details of Germans who allegedly tried to evade paying tax back home.

Fourteen other countries, including Britain, are conducting inquiries into their own citizens on the disc for tax evasion.

The head of the LGT, His Serene Highness Prince Max von und zu Liechtenstein, is a member of the principality's ruling family.

Speaking afterwards, when I pressed him on the £100m Britain expects to get back from UK taxpayers who used LGT to evade paying tax, he told me Liechtenstein was being treated unfairly - and that Britain, too, was a keen player on offshore finance markets.

"There is tax competition going on on a global basis. The British have positioned themselves very well in a number of areas - not only in their [dependent] territories, but also in the UK," he said.

The British government says it is keen to clamp down on people using other havens to hide their money.

But other critics also say Britain is being inconsistent, with tax havens such as Bermuda or the Cayman Islands operating from British dependent territories.

"Because of the number of places that the UK allows to operate as tax havens, our role in providing the secrecy spaces that these locations provide, which harbour crime, is greater than Liechtenstein's," says Richard Murphy, a campaigner on tax issues.

"We're the biggest tax haven operator in the world. They've been seen as useful. They've brought money into London, Switzerland and other financial centres, and for that reason, London has tolerated them." Is Time Running Out for Tax Havens? >>> By Ray Furlong, Vaduz

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)