Statement of Professor Andreas Peichl on the Anti-Corruption Summit London 2016: "Politicians Have to Toughen up on Tax Havens"

On today's summit in London, the world's governments are conferring on how to effectively fight global corruption. According to Professor Andreas Peichl, head of the Research Group “International Distribution and Redistribution” at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, politicians lack consistency in a crucial matter – namely in tackling tax havens within the Commonwealth.

"As the revealed Panama Papers have shown, a great number of tax havens is under the aegis of the United Kingdom. Locations such as the Cayman Islands, the Virgin Islands or the Channel Islands offer perfect conditions to feather one's own figurative nest: high-level contract, financial and legal certainty, combined with extremely low corporate or income taxes and no information exchange. All this is tolerated by the British Crown, which thereby facilitates tax abuse in these tax havens.

Policy might toughen up on that issue, but does not seem to do so. A transparency register, as proposed by the European Union, might actually provide a remedy – on condition that the authorities are granted access to the related data. Tax prosecution would receive essential support if specialists in charge evaluate that data. In the end, this would benefit the public budget and therefore the tax payer."

For more information please contact

Professor Andreas Peichl, Phone +49/621/1235-389, E-mail peichl@zew.de