Liectenstein: The PM speaks in the FT

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The Prime Minister of Liechtenstein has written in the FT saying (amongst other things):

It is too early for a final assessment or even a legal assessment of this topic. It is not too early, however, to intensify our efforts to provide information on the far-reaching rules already introduced in Liechtenstein to secure our financial centre. We have taken numerous measures to ensure our financial centre's compliance with international standards, and to prevent money laundering and organised crime. This will continue to be one of our most important tasks in the future.

So you might have done. But you refuse to even recognise tax evasion as a crime. In that case all else you say is just a sham. And you must know it.

You might say:

People who fail to declare their taxable income in their tax domicile are subject to penalties. In recent cases involving alleged tax evasion by German companies, this is a matter for the tax authorities of Germany, not those of Liechtenstein.

But when you knowingly create the structures that reduce the chance of a tax evader being caught when doing so to such a degree that there has until now been almost no risk from committing that crime, and this was a deliberate act on your part, then I have a simple response: if you mean what you say about standards abolish your secrecy laws, make tax evasion a crime in your country, enter into full information exchange agreements and then compete on a level playing field.

You won't be able to, I know. I'd expect the vast majority of the €99bn in your 15 banks will leave. There's good reason. It's not in Liechtenstein because your bankers are smart. It's not there because of your tax rates. It's not there because people just love Vaduz. It's there because you facilitate the crime of tax evasion, even if that evasion does not happen in your domain. And you know who is doing it: every single person who has an account who asks that information not be exchanged under the EU Savings Tax Directive is doing it and I bet not one of your banks has chosen to report the fact even though in every single such case they must have sufficient suspicion of money laundering to require them to do so.

And until you stop that crime, all else you say rings completely hollow.

Although I'll put it on record that there is one thing I should thank you for: if, as you say, you really are complying with international standards they are woefully inadequate. I guess that's the only thing we can learn from you.


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