Features of Global Information Leaks from Tax Havens

Abstract

The existence of tax havens is an integral phenomenon of the modern stage of the world economy development. They compete with each other on the basis of tax rates, privacy level, quality and speed of the service offered. Determining the impact of tax havens is now a rather pressing issue, deepening which has largely contributed to leakages of information, particularly the Panama Papers. However, the leaks of information from tax havens are not sufficiently covered in the research of both domestic and foreign scholars. The article is aimed at examining the impact of tax havens and the Panama Papers information leak on the world economy. The definition of tax havens and their scale in modern conditions of globalization economy is considered. In the systematization of scientific works the relatively different leaks of information from tax havens were compared and the largest of them was identified. The essence of the activities of Mossack Fonseca, the company that was the victim of the data leak, is disclosed. The dynamics of registered offshore companies within the framework of the Panama Papers leak are substantiated. With the help of a mathematical model, the authors computed a trend vector of movement of the number of companies, which are using the services of offshore zones. As a result of regression trend analysis, it was defined that the number of companies registered by Mossack Fonseca tends to grow (an average of 292 units annually). This indicates that, despite the publication of classified information, the popularity of tax havens continues to increase. The main intermediary countries, which are most popular in tax speculation, are provided. It is determined that the simplicity of formalization and registration of companies, the lack of control over subsidiaries of multinational business groups are key attributes of the activities of tax havens that contribute to their use to avoid paying income taxes and money laundering. The consequences caused by the activities of tax havens and information leaks from them have been formulated. The most important among them are: sanctions provisions and monitoring of offshore activities.

Keywords

• tax haven
• panama papers
• information leaks
• mossack fonseca
• offshores