Grey matters
January 5, 2010 Niall Coffey, Warren B. Hrung, Hoai-Luu Q. Nguyen & Asani Sarkar,
The global financial crisis and offshore dollar markets, Current Issues
in Economics and Finance, vol. 15, no. 6 (October 2009) available at
http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/current_issues/ci15-6.pdf
This paper examines the literature on offshore financial centres and multilateral efforts at limiting competition. It concludes that, without strong enforcement capacities from the very beginning, the multilateral approach is vulnerable to bilateralism. The paper proposes several solutions, including the creation of a unique international body dealing with all issues raised by OFCs, or the adoption of a “unitary taxation” system or a “Financial Transparency Index.”
Tax havens have attracted increasing attention from policy-makers in recent years. This paper provides an overview of a growing body of research that analyses the consequences and determinants of the existence of tax-haven countries. For instance, recent evidence suggests that tax havens tend to have stronger governance institutions than comparable non-haven countries. Most importantly, tax havens provide opportunities for tax planning by multinational corporations.