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So basically the others not yourself. Ireland, Malta, Cyprus.. nah. I recall not so long ago a prominent European bank's branch in Lithuania making headlines f

So basically the others not yourself. Ireland, Malta, Cyprus.. nah. I recall not so long ago a prominent European bank's branch in Lithuania making headlines for very explicitly laundering cash. Then there's the whole ex dividend fiasco. There's a couple of frauds with Steinhoff, Wirecard... I mean seriously all you got to look is a bit deeper.. More likely this is a political stunt either against the UK or for the banking union as one of the things it can solve for (a common anti fraud system, etc) [1] https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1240097/lithuania-cooperating-with-denmark-in-danske-bank-money-laundering-investigation https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1240097/lithuania-c...

rusk 5y ago
Don’t forget Luxembourg, Monaco … EDIT the Netherlands is another one that flies under the radar quite well - Lichtenstein I believe has an up and coming financial services industry too
- pvitz 5y ago
  Liechtenstein and Monaco are not members of the EU.
  - tomohawk 5y ago
    But they make the policies of the EU possible. How may EU citizens, especially EU elites, hide there money in those places?
  - rusk 5y ago
    > Liechtenstein and Monaco are not members of the EU come off it. They're very much jacked into the EU economy.
throw63738 5y ago
Those countries are not really tax heavens anymore. Especially Ireland changed a lot!
belter 5y ago
You missed the one where the magic really happens... "The Netherlands is still one of the world's main tax havens, coming in fourth place on Tax Justice Network's biennial ranking of tax havens. Only the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda scored worse than the Netherlands when it came to tax avoidance." https://nltimes.nl/2021/03/09/netherlands-worlds-4th-biggest-tax-haven https://nltimes.nl/2021/03/09/netherlands-worlds-4th-biggest... "Bermuda? Guess again. Turns out Holland is the tax haven of choice for US companies" https://thecorrespondent.com/6942/bermuda-guess-again-turns-out-holland-is-the-tax-haven-of-choice-for-us-companies/ https://thecorrespondent.com/6942/bermuda-guess-again-turns-... "The Coronavirus exposes the Netherlands as a tax haven – again" https://www.euractiv.com/section/economic-governance/opinion/the-coronavirus-exposes-the-netherlands-as-a-tax-haven-again/ https://www.euractiv.com/section/economic-governance/opinion...
- Aeolun 5y ago
  But how? Living in the Netherlands I want me some of that magic. My taxes are through the roof (both as a company and personally).
  - CodeGlitch 5y ago
    You have to be wealthy to access this special tax break :)
    - Arnt 5y ago
      Being wealthy doesn't help. You have to be outside the Netherlands and have your income outside the Netherlands.
      - refurb 5y ago
        Exactly. The tax haven aspect is mostly the level of transparency with other countries. If you're from a non-Western country (because there is data sharing among EU and US/Canada to some extent) have $10M and decide to invest it in the Netherlands or another tax haven, it's pretty unlikely the Netherlands is going to be all that helpful in sharing that relevant information with your home country so they can actually collect taxes. If you're actually a legal resident of the Netherlands well that doesn't help you at all since the Netherlands gov't has complete visibility into financial transactions within the country. Same with the US. Great place to hide money if you're from certain countries since Uncle Sam doesn't give two shits if some countries can't collect taxes.
Y-bar 5y ago
> So basically the others not yourself. Ireland [...] The EU Commission took Ireland to court (and lost) about their secret sweetheart tax deals with Apple so it appears they are well aware of what happens within their own borders. https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2020-07/cp200090en.pdf https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/202... > By its decision, the Commission considered that the tax rulings in question constituted State aid unlawfully put into effect by Ireland. The aid was declared incompatible with the internal market. The Commission demanded the recovery of the aid in question. According to the Commission’s calculations, Ireland had granted Apple 13 billion euro in unlawful tax advantages.
- throwawaylinux 5y ago
  > The EU Commission took Ireland to court (and lost) about their secret sweetheart tax deals with Apple So the EU court found the EU member did nothing wrong. > so it appears they are well aware of what happens within their own borders. I don't think the parent was complaining that the EU did not know what goes on within their borders.
  - Y-bar 5y ago
    Perhaps so, I read it more along the lines of "EU discovered they did not do enough" because the ruling did have an effect; the EU Parliament went ahead with Article 116 against not just Ireland but also Netherlands and Belgium. So they _do_ target and attempt to improve the internal market.
    - throwawaylinux 5y ago
      Look at the comment you first replied to though. What are you actually arguing? That US or UK don't understand what goes on, or that you can't find anecdotal instances of them attempting to improve their regulation?
      - Y-bar 5y ago
        OP in this thread is basically saying that EU should not point fingers toward other nations when they have enough clean-up to do at home. I am arguing that EU, while flawed in its execution of that duty, is actively doing just that. What exactly do you think I am saying?
bsd44 5y ago
City of London Corporation, Gibraltar, Jersey, British Virgin Islands, South Dakota... I'm intentionally ignoring honeypots such as Cayman Islands, Delaware, Panama etc.

rusk 5y ago

Don’t forget Luxembourg, Monaco … EDIT the Netherlands is another one that flies under the radar quite well - Lichtenstein I believe has an up and coming financial services industry too

pvitz 5y ago
Liechtenstein and Monaco are not members of the EU.
- tomohawk 5y ago
  But they make the policies of the EU possible. How may EU citizens, especially EU elites, hide there money in those places?
- rusk 5y ago
  > Liechtenstein and Monaco are not members of the EU come off it. They're very much jacked into the EU economy.

throw63738 5y ago

Those countries are not really tax heavens anymore. Especially Ireland changed a lot!

belter 5y ago

You missed the one where the magic really happens... "The Netherlands is still one of the world's main tax havens, coming in fourth place on Tax Justice Network's biennial ranking of tax havens. Only the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda scored worse than the Netherlands when it came to tax avoidance." https://nltimes.nl/2021/03/09/netherlands-worlds-4th-biggest-tax-haven https://nltimes.nl/2021/03/09/netherlands-worlds-4th-biggest... "Bermuda? Guess again. Turns out Holland is the tax haven of choice for US companies" https://thecorrespondent.com/6942/bermuda-guess-again-turns-out-holland-is-the-tax-haven-of-choice-for-us-companies/ https://thecorrespondent.com/6942/bermuda-guess-again-turns-... "The Coronavirus exposes the Netherlands as a tax haven – again" https://www.euractiv.com/section/economic-governance/opinion/the-coronavirus-exposes-the-netherlands-as-a-tax-haven-again/ https://www.euractiv.com/section/economic-governance/opinion...

Aeolun 5y ago
But how? Living in the Netherlands I want me some of that magic. My taxes are through the roof (both as a company and personally).
- CodeGlitch 5y ago
  You have to be wealthy to access this special tax break :)
  - Arnt 5y ago
    Being wealthy doesn't help. You have to be outside the Netherlands and have your income outside the Netherlands.
    - refurb 5y ago
      Exactly. The tax haven aspect is mostly the level of transparency with other countries. If you're from a non-Western country (because there is data sharing among EU and US/Canada to some extent) have $10M and decide to invest it in the Netherlands or another tax haven, it's pretty unlikely the Netherlands is going to be all that helpful in sharing that relevant information with your home country so they can actually collect taxes. If you're actually a legal resident of the Netherlands well that doesn't help you at all since the Netherlands gov't has complete visibility into financial transactions within the country. Same with the US. Great place to hide money if you're from certain countries since Uncle Sam doesn't give two shits if some countries can't collect taxes.

Y-bar 5y ago

> So basically the others not yourself. Ireland [...] The EU Commission took Ireland to court (and lost) about their secret sweetheart tax deals with Apple so it appears they are well aware of what happens within their own borders. https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2020-07/cp200090en.pdf https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/202... > By its decision, the Commission considered that the tax rulings in question constituted State aid unlawfully put into effect by Ireland. The aid was declared incompatible with the internal market. The Commission demanded the recovery of the aid in question. According to the Commission’s calculations, Ireland had granted Apple 13 billion euro in unlawful tax advantages.

throwawaylinux 5y ago
> The EU Commission took Ireland to court (and lost) about their secret sweetheart tax deals with Apple So the EU court found the EU member did nothing wrong. > so it appears they are well aware of what happens within their own borders. I don't think the parent was complaining that the EU did not know what goes on within their borders.
- Y-bar 5y ago
  Perhaps so, I read it more along the lines of "EU discovered they did not do enough" because the ruling did have an effect; the EU Parliament went ahead with Article 116 against not just Ireland but also Netherlands and Belgium. So they _do_ target and attempt to improve the internal market.
  - throwawaylinux 5y ago
    Look at the comment you first replied to though. What are you actually arguing? That US or UK don't understand what goes on, or that you can't find anecdotal instances of them attempting to improve their regulation?
    - Y-bar 5y ago
      OP in this thread is basically saying that EU should not point fingers toward other nations when they have enough clean-up to do at home. I am arguing that EU, while flawed in its execution of that duty, is actively doing just that. What exactly do you think I am saying?

bsd44 5y ago

City of London Corporation, Gibraltar, Jersey, British Virgin Islands, South Dakota... I'm intentionally ignoring honeypots such as Cayman Islands, Delaware, Panama etc.