The World’s 15 Worst Corporate Tax Havens

Collecting tax is one of the key means by which governments are able to address poverty and inequality but big business is dodging tax on an industrial scale, depriving governments across the globe of the money they need to address poverty and invest in healthcare, education and jobs. This report exposes the world’s worst corporate tax havens – extreme examples of a destructive race to the bottom on corporate tax which has seen governments across the globe slash corporate tax bills in an attempt to attract business.

Over the last few decades, however, figures show that the tax contributions of large corporations are diminishing as governments compete in a race to the bottom on corporate taxation. Over the last thirty years, net profits posted by the world’s largest companies more than tripled in real terms, from $2 trillion in 1980 to $7.2 trillion by 2013.  This increase has not been matched by a rising trend in corporate income tax contributions, partially because of tax havens.

The world’s 15 worst corporate tax havens:

Table 2: Top 15 corporate tax havens Top 15		Characteristics
1	Bermuda		0% corporate income tax (CIT), 0% withholding taxes, lack of participation in multilateral anti-abuse, exchange and transparency initiatives, evidence of large-scale profit shifting.
2	Cayman Islands		0% CIT, 0% withholding taxes,31 lack of participation in multilateral anti-abuse, exchange and transparency initiatives, evidence of large-scale profit shifting.
3	The Netherlands		Tax incentives, 0% withholding taxes, evidence of large-scale profit shifting.
4	Switzerland		Tax incentives, 0% withholding taxes, lack of participation in multilateral anti-abuse and transparency initiatives, evidence of large scale profit shifting.
5	Singapore		Tax incentives, lack of withholding taxes, evidence of substantial profit shifting.
6	Ireland		Low CIT, tax incentives, evidence of large scale profit shifting
7	Luxembourg		Tax incentives, 0% withholding taxes, evidence of large scale profit shifting
8	Curaçao		Tax incentives, 0% withholding taxes, lack of participation in multilateral anti-abuse, exchange and transparency initiatives, evidence of substantial profit shifting.
9	Hong Kong		Tax incentives, 0% withholding taxes, evidence of large scale profit shifting.
10	Cyprus		Low CIT, tax incentives, 0% withholding taxes.
11	Bahamas		0% CIT, 0% withholding taxes, lack of participation in multilateral anti-abuse and transparency initiatives.
12	Jersey		0% CIT, 0% withholding taxes, evidence of substantial profit shifting.
13	Barbados		Low CIT, 0% withholding taxes lack of participation in multilateral anti-abuse and transparency initiatives.
14	Mauritius		Low CIT, 0% withholding taxes, lack of participation in multilateral anti-abuse and transparency initiatives.
15	British Virgin Islands		0% CIT, 0% withholding taxes, lack of participation in multilateral anti-abuse and transparency initiatives.

Corporate tax havens are causing the loss of huge amounts of valuable tax revenue and their use is becoming standard business practice…[Indeed,] 90 percent of the world’s biggest companies had a presence in at least one tax haven.

Editor’s Note: The above excerpts* from the original article have been edited ([ ]) and abridged (…) for the sake of clarity and brevity. Also note that this complete paragraph must be included in any re-posting to avoid copyright infringement.

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(*The author’s views and conclusions are unaltered and no personal comments have been included to maintain the integrity of the original article. Furthermore, the views, conclusions and any recommendations offered in this article are not to be construed as an endorsement of such by the editor.)

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