A new blacklist? Yes, please

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The Guardian has reported that:

Addressing the Scottish Labour party conference, [Gordon Brown] is expected to highlight plans to crackdown on countries that refuse to co-operate on tax havens, possibly by putting them on an OECD blacklist.

Now there’s a development. Let’s roll back the actions of the Bush administration in June 2001 when they pushed the OECD harmful tax competition initiative into touch, just before the events of 9/11.

Now it so happens I approve of blacklists. I think they can have a significant impact, simply by their creation. States will want to get of any list as fast as possible. They will as a consequence change behaviour. That is exactly what they are meant to do.

However, blacklists also have to be reasonable, rational and justifiable.

A while ago the Tax Justice Network produced a listing of tax havens based upon a wide range of sources dating from the 1970s. I reproduce it below. I think this type of cluster approach is important. Using one criteria is not enough. Nor is one reference enough unless there is clear evidence to support inclusion.

In practice, I will include every state on the list below with a score of four or more plus Dubai, because of its emerging status, Austria because it refuses to exchange information under the EU STD, Belgium for the same reason until it does implement its decision to exchange information under that directive, whilst excluding Niue and Nauru because as far as I can tell they have ceased operation.

I suggest that this is rational, supported and justifiable.

And I know Ireland, Luxembourg and Switzerland will not like this. That is their problem.

The full listing is available at page 25 here. A summary is here:

Rank

Location Total
     
     
1 Bahamas 11
2 Bermuda 11
3 Cayman Islands 11
4 Guernsey 11
5 Jersey 11
6 Malta 11
7 Panama 11
8 Barbados 10
9 British Virgin Islands 10
10 Cyprus 10
11 Isle of Man 10
12 Liechtenstein 10
13 Netherlands Antilles 10
14 Vanuatu 10
15 Gibraltar 9
16 Hong Kong 9
17 Singapore 9
18 St Vincent & Grenadines 9
19 Switzerland 9
20 Turks & Caicos Islands 9
21 Antigua & Barbuda 8
22 Belize 8
23 Cook Islands 8
24 Grenada 8
25 Ireland 8
26 Luxembourg 8
27 Monaco 8
28 Nauru 8
29 St Kitts & Nevis 8
30 Andorra 7
31 Anguilla 7
32 Bahrain 7
33 Costa Rica 7
34 Marshall Islands 7
35 Mauritius 7
36 St Lucia 7
37 Aruba 6
38 Dominica 6
39 Liberia 6
40 Samoa 6
41 Seychelles 6
42 Lebanon 5
43 Niue 5
44 Macao 4
45 Malaysia (Labuan) 4
46 Montserrat 4
47 Maldives 3
48 United Kingdom 3
49 Brunei 2
50 Dubai 2
51 Hungary 2
52 Israel 2
53 Latvia 2
54 Madeira 2
55 Netherlands 2
56 Philipines 2
57 South Africa 2
58 Tonga 2
59 Uruguay 2
60 US Virgin Islands 2
61 USA 2
62 Alderney 1
63 Anjouan 1
64 Belgium 1
65 Botswana 1
66 Campione d'Italia 1
67 Egypt 1
68 France 1
69 Germany 1
70 Guatemala 1
71 Honduras 1
72 Iceland 1
73 Indonesia 1
74 Ingushetia 1
75 Jordan 1
76 Marianas 1
77 Melilla 1
78 Myanmar 1
79 Nigeria 1
80 Palau 1
81 Puerto Rico 1
82 Russia 1
83 San Marino 1
84 Sao Tome e Principe 1
85 Sark 1
86 Somalia 1
87 Sri Lanka 1
88 Taipei 1
89 Trieste 1
90 Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 1
91 Ukraine 1
     

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