artofdream
Jedi
Source: _https://www.icij.org/blog/2017/790/icij-releases-paradise-papers/
Interesting timing ... have to see how it will evolve.
#art
Interesting timing ... have to see how it will evolve.
#art
ICIJ releases The Paradise Papers
- Thread starter artofdream
- Start date
angelburst29
The Living Force
Bernie Sanders Warns of 'International Oligarchy' after Paradise Papers Leak
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960816001469
In a statement in the wake of the massive leak of documents exposing the secrets of offshore investors, Sanders said that the enrichment of wealthy individuals and companies in tax havens was “the major issue of our time”, Guardian reported.
He said the Paradise Papers opened the door on a “major problem not just for the US but for governments throughout the world”.
“The major issue of our time is the rapid movement toward international oligarchy in which a handful of billionaires own and control a significant part of the global economy. The Paradise Papers shows how these billionaires and multinational corporations get richer by hiding their wealth and profits and avoid paying their fair share of taxes,” the US senator from Vermont said.
Sanders, who came in a close second to Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, pointed the finger of blame for the flourishing of offshore holdings on both Congress and the Trump administration. He told the Guardian that Republicans in Congress were responsible for providing “even more tax breaks to profitable corporations like Apple and Nike”.
The same tax breaks, he said, were being seized upon by super-wealthy members of Trump’s cabinet “who avoid billions in US taxes by shifting American jobs and profits to offshore tax havens. We need to close these loopholes and demand a fair and progressive tax system.”
Sanders’ intervention in the debate sparked by the Paradise Papers marks the most prominent political response to the leak in their opening 24 hours. The investigation stems from the leak of some 13m files obtained by Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany and shared with almost 100 news organisations around the world including the Guardian by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
One of the most pointed disclosures in the Paradise Papers was that Wilbur Ross, Trump’s commerce secretary, has continued to do business with the son-in-law of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as well as a member of Putin’s inner circle who is under US sanctions. Ross, himself a billionaire, has retained since joining the Trump administration his investment in a shipping company, Navigator, that has a partnership with the Russian gas giant Sibur.
The emergence of Ross’s ongoing ties to business interests so close to the Russian president at a time of intense scrutiny of the relationship between the Trump administration and the Kremlin has incensed prominent Democrats involved in Ross’s confirmation to office. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who sits on the US Senate commerce committee, accused Ross of deceiving the public as well as lawmakers who had allowed the confirmation to go through having heard Ross promise to divest himself of any interests that carried potential conflict.
Further responses to the Paradise Papers came from the Democratic leader in the US Senate Chuck Schumer, and the ranking Democratic member of the Senate finance committee, Ron Wyden. In a joint statement they accused Republicans in Congress leading the push towards a reform of the tax code of failing to close egregious loopholes revealed by the leaks.
What are the Paradise Papers and what do they tell us?
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/what-are-the-paradise-papers-and-what-do-they-tell-us
There are also details from 19 corporate registries maintained by governments in secrecy jurisdictions – Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Cook Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Labuan, Lebanon, Malta, the Marshall Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu. The papers cover the period from 1950 to 2016.
How many media organizations have been looking at the data? - The Guardian is one of 96 media partners in the project. A total of 381 journalists from 67 countries have been analysing the material.
Who got the documents – and how? - The leaks were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which also received the Panama Papers last year. Süddeutsche Zeitung shared the material with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a US-based organisation that coordinated the global collaboration. Süddeutsche Zeitung has not, and will not, discuss issues around sourcing.
Do the Paradise Papers focus on companies or individuals? - Both. They are united by one thing – money. Some of the world’s biggest multinationals feature in the leak, including Apple, Nike and Facebook, as well as some of the richest people in the world, from the Queen to Bono, and from the stars of British sitcoms to the stars who grace Hollywood Boulevard.
What do the documents show? - The files show the offshore empire is bigger and more complicated than most people thought. And even companies such as Appleby, which prides itself on being a standard bearer in the field, have fallen foul of the regulators that try to police the industry.
The files set out the myriad ways in which companies and individuals can avoid tax using artificial structures. These schemes are legal if run correctly. But many appear not to be. And politicians around the world are beginning to ask whether they should be banned. Are they fair? Are they moral?
A fundamental question posed by the Paradise Papers is: has tax avoidance in all its guises gone too far?
What does Appleby say? - The firm has denied any wrongdoing, either by itself or by any of its clients. But it has conceded that it is not infallible and has tried to learn from its mistakes. The company has agreed to take part in any formal inquiries that come out of the disclosures. Estera has declined to comment.
Corbyn: UK Queen Should Apologize for Offshore Investments
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960816000766
Speaking at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) annual conference, Corbyn said the revelations contained in the leak were “shocking,” and added that “widespread tax avoidance and evasion on an industrial scale must lead to decisive action and real change,” Politico reported.
Asked if he thought the queen should apologize, Corbyn said according to City A.M., “Anyone who is putting money into a tax haven … should do two things, they should apologize and recognize what it does for society.” “Who loses out? Schools, hospitals, housing,” he added.
According to the leaked documents, some £10 million of the queen’s private money was invested in funds in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda by the Duchy of Lancaster, which provides the queen with an income.
A spokesperson for the Duchy of Lancaster told the BBC that the all of the investments “are fully audited and legitimate.”
Leaked Documents: Queen Elizabeth Has Millions Stashed in Offshore Tax Havens
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960815001476
According to documents obtained by the International Consortium of Journalists, around 10 million pounds (13 million dollars) of the queen's private cash is said to have been tied up in offshore portfolios.
The leak, dubbed the Paradise Papers, contains 13.4 million documents, mostly from one leading firm in offshore finance. Nearly 100 media groups are investigating the leaked papers.
The core of the leak, totaling more than 13.4 million documents, focuses on the Bermudan law firm Appleby, a 119-year-old company, whose clients are corporations and very wealthy people. Appleby helps clients reduce their tax burden; obscure their ownership of assets like companies, private aircraft, real estate and yachts; and set up huge offshore trusts that in some cases hold billions of dollars.
Many of the leaked documents reveal how politicians, multinationals, celebrities and high-net-worth individuals use complex structures of trusts, foundations and shell companies to protect their cash from tax officials or hide their dealings behind a veil of secrecy.
The files show the offshore empire is bigger and more complicated than many had imagined.
Essentially the tax havens are places outside a country’s regulations, to which companies or individuals can redirect money, assets or profits to take advantage of lower taxes rates than their own country.
These jurisdictions are known as offshore tax havens, to use the more technical jargon, offshore financial centers (OFCs). They are generally stable, secretive and reliable, often small islands but not exclusively so, and can vary on how rigorously they carry out checks on wrongdoing.
Britain has a big role in the flourishing of these entities, not simply because so many of its overseas territories and crown dependencies are OFCs, but many of the lawyers, accountants and bankers working in the offshore industry operate out of the city of London.
Wealthy individuals and large companies have one thing in common: enormous amounts of money they want to hide from taxing.
Some of the world’s biggest multinationals feature in the leak, including Apple, Nike and Facebook, as well as some of the richest people in the world, from the British monarch to Bono, and from the stars of British sitcoms to the stars of Hollywood.
Brooke Harrington, renowned author of Capital Without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent, said offshore finance is not for the 1 percent but the .001 percent.
How Queen Elizabeth Invested in Firm That Targeted Mentally Ill
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201711061058853064-paradise-papers-queen-investments/
Millions of pounds from the British monarch's private estate are invested in a Cayman Islands fund as part of an offshore portfolio that has never previously been disclosed, documents, released under the Paradise Papers project — a vast collaborative investigation into offshore tax havens — have revealed.
Files show Queen Elizabeth II, via the Duchy of Lancaster (a portfolio of land, property and assets held in trust for the British Sovereign), has held and continues to hold investments via funds in an array of businesses, including controversial retailer BrightHouse.
In October 2017, the company — the UK's biggest "rent-to-own" retailer — was slapped with a US$20 million fine for not acting as a "responsible lender."
The firm supplies household goods, such as TVs and washing machines, at sky-high credit rates to consumers who cannot access typical borrowing facilities.
Britain's financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, said the firm had overcharged customers and used aggressive sales techniques on customers with mental health problems and learning disabilities.
Moreover, the company itself has limited its own tax bills via large loans to a Luxembourg holding company — between 2007 and 2014, it reported US$2.1 billion in revenue and an operating profit of US$250 million, but paid less than US$8 million in corporation tax.
Pass the Duchy - The Duchy claims it was unaware of the fund's 12-year investment in BrightHouse, until approached by the group of newspapers involved in the Paradise Papers project. It refused to disclose the size of its original investment in the company, made in 2005, as its share price began to rocket.
Elsewhere, the Duchy has investments in a number of overseas funds, including one in Ireland. While it claims to have received no tax advantages from investing offshore, offshore private equity funds are explicitly designed to shield UK investors from paying US taxes on their holdings.
The Duchy invested in BrightHouse via the Dover Street VI Cayman Fund, which invests in international venture capital and private equity funds —
in 2005, Dover Street fund managers contacted investors to request an injection of capital, setting out what was needed and where it would be invested.
A number of firms were targeted for investment, including Vision Capital Partners, a private equiry firm which had purchased BrightHouse two-months prior. The Duchy was asked to contribute US$450,000 to the effort.
The Dover Street VI fund closed December 2014 and has sold off its holdings and remunerated investors since, although based on available data it's unclear what the Duchy has received — although a June 2008 letter included in the leak shows the Duchy was entitled to US$361,367, on which it paid — 0.4 percent (US$1,505) tax.
A Duchy spokesperson told The Guardian, one of the newspapers involved in the investigation, that the Dover Street fund investment represented a mere 0.3 percent of the estate's US$655 million total value.
Hedging Bets - The Duchy also invested around US$7 million in the Jubilee Absolute Return fund, which invests in hedge funds. At the time of initial investment, June 2004, the fund was based in Bermuda — by 2006, it had hopped to Guernsey, another tax haven. The fund did not pay tax on its income or gains until 2016.
The Tax Justice Network (TJN) said "it should come as no surprise" that the Queen used offshore tax havens as part of her wealth management strategy.
The Queen is, after all, the head of state of the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands, Bermuda, and others, which makes her the Queen of Tax Havens. The Queen's role as Head of State of so many leading secrecy jurisdictions puts her in a highly compromised position. The situation is made worse by revelations her wealth management team have invested in an offshore portfolio," the campaign group said.
TJN is calling on Britain's head of state to use her weekly meeting with the Prime Minister to "push for three specific measures," to wit; all British territories make their company ownership registers fully available to public online search at no cost; all British territories require registration and publication of information concerning trusts; the Prime Minister accepts full responsibility for the activities of British secrecy jurisdictions and requires them to automatically share information on offshore trusts with the relevant authorities of all countries across the world.
'Paradise Papers' Reveal Tax Avoidance, Shady Dealings of World's Rich and Powerful
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/11/06/paradise-papers-reveal-tax-avoidance-shady-dealings-worlds-rich-and-powerful
Some of the world's wealthiest and most powerful people will be waking up on Monday to discover that some of their best kept secrets—how they hide their vast wealth and avoid paying taxes—are now being read about in newspapers across the world after the release of a trove of offshore legal and banking documents were leaked to journalists and published Sunday as a joint project called the 'Paradise Papers.'
First obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the documents were then shared with scores of journalists and researchers associated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other media organizations, including the New York Times, BBC, and the Guardian.
"There is this small group of people who are not equally subject to the laws as the rest of us, and that's on purpose," said author and financial expert Brooke Harrington in response to the new insights about how these elites secretly manage their wealth.
As the ICIJ reports, the "trove of 13.4 million records exposes ties between Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump's billionaire commerce secretary, the secret dealings of the chief fundraiser for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the offshore interests of the Queen of England and more than 120 politicians around the world." According to the ICIJ, the documents show how deeply the offshore financial system is entangled with the overlapping worlds of political players, private wealth and corporate giants, including Apple, Nike, Uber and other global companies that avoid taxes through increasingly imaginative bookkeeping maneuvers.
One offshore web leads to Trump’s commerce secretary, private equity tycoon Wilbur Ross, who has a stake in a shipping company that has received more than $68 million in revenue since 2014 from a Russian energy company co-owned by the son-in-law of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In all, the offshore ties of more than a dozen Trump advisers, Cabinet members and major donors appear in the leaked data.
At the center for the leak, explains the Guardian, is the law firm Appleby which has "outposts in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. In contrast to Mossack Fonseca, the discredited firm at the centre of last year's Panama Papers investigation, Appleby prides itself on being a leading member of the 'magic circle' of top-ranking offshore service providers."
But what exactly do the 'Paradise Papers' represent? This video explains:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkVV2hvuQdM (2:06 min.)
According to a summary by the Guardian, the 'Paradise Papers' reveal:
* Millions of pounds from the Queen’s private estate has been invested in a Cayman Islands fund – and some of her money went to a retailer accused of exploiting poor families and vulnerable people.
* Extensive offshore dealings by Donald Trump’s cabinet members, advisers and donors, including substantial payments from a firm co-owned by Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law to the shipping group of the US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross.
* How Twitter and Facebook received hundreds of millions of dollars in investments that can be traced back to Russian state financial institutions.
* The tax-avoiding Cayman Islands trust managed by the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s chief moneyman.
* A previously unknown $450m offshore trust that has sheltered the wealth of Lord Ashcroft.
* Aggressive tax avoidance by multinational corporations, including Nike and Apple.
* How some of the biggest names in the film and TV industries protect their wealth with an array of offshore schemes.
* The billions in tax refunds by the Isle of Man and Malta to the owners of private jets and luxury yachts.
* The secret loan and alliance used by the London-listed multinational Glencore in its efforts to secure lucrative mining rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
* The complex offshore webs used by two Russian billionaires to buy stakes in Arsenal and Everton football clubs.
Speaking with the Guardian, economist Gabriel Zucman—who is releasing a study later this week about the interplay between tax havens and global inequality—says the two are intricately linked.
"Tax havens are one of the key engines of the rise in global inequality," he said. "As inequality rises, offshore tax evasion is becoming an elite sport."
Apple 'shopped around' tax havens before 'shifting its billions to Jersey' after its Irish loophole was shut down, Paradise Papers reveal
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5055537/Paradise-Papers-reveal-Apple-set-offshore-avoid-tax.html
Apple 'shopped around' for a new haven to help them avoid billions in taxes after a loophole they used in Ireland was shut down, the Paradise Papers have revealed.
The tech giant decided set up a secretive new offshore structure in Jersey after sending a tax wish list to the authorities, leaked documents have revealed.
Apple is alleged to have sent a questionnaire to the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Mauritius, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey asking what they could offer.
The document asks how transparent their tax system is, demanded assurances on 'tax exemption' and questioned if there was any 'credible' political opposition that could threaten any tax deal.
An email from a lawyer Bermuda also spelled out that Apple is 'sensitive to publicity' and work was on a 'need to know' basis only.
According to the BBC Apple later moved a subsidiary holding vast amounts of untaxed offshore cash to the Channel Islands after plumping for Jersey.
Apple was last night accused of secretly shifting key parts of its empire to Jersey to keep its tax rate low.
Although it has done nothing illegal, the disclosure is likely to raise fresh questions over the tax arrangements of the world’s most profitable firm.
Until 2014, the US tech firm had been exploiting legal loopholes to funnel all its sales outside of America – about 55 per cent of its revenue – through Irish subsidiaries. These were effectively stateless for taxation purposes, and so incurred hardly any tax.
But after the EU announced in 2013 that it was investigating the arrangement, the Irish government decided that firms incorporated there could no longer be stateless for tax purposes. (Article continues.)
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960816001469
In a statement in the wake of the massive leak of documents exposing the secrets of offshore investors, Sanders said that the enrichment of wealthy individuals and companies in tax havens was “the major issue of our time”, Guardian reported.
He said the Paradise Papers opened the door on a “major problem not just for the US but for governments throughout the world”.
“The major issue of our time is the rapid movement toward international oligarchy in which a handful of billionaires own and control a significant part of the global economy. The Paradise Papers shows how these billionaires and multinational corporations get richer by hiding their wealth and profits and avoid paying their fair share of taxes,” the US senator from Vermont said.
Sanders, who came in a close second to Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, pointed the finger of blame for the flourishing of offshore holdings on both Congress and the Trump administration. He told the Guardian that Republicans in Congress were responsible for providing “even more tax breaks to profitable corporations like Apple and Nike”.
The same tax breaks, he said, were being seized upon by super-wealthy members of Trump’s cabinet “who avoid billions in US taxes by shifting American jobs and profits to offshore tax havens. We need to close these loopholes and demand a fair and progressive tax system.”
Sanders’ intervention in the debate sparked by the Paradise Papers marks the most prominent political response to the leak in their opening 24 hours. The investigation stems from the leak of some 13m files obtained by Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany and shared with almost 100 news organisations around the world including the Guardian by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
One of the most pointed disclosures in the Paradise Papers was that Wilbur Ross, Trump’s commerce secretary, has continued to do business with the son-in-law of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as well as a member of Putin’s inner circle who is under US sanctions. Ross, himself a billionaire, has retained since joining the Trump administration his investment in a shipping company, Navigator, that has a partnership with the Russian gas giant Sibur.
The emergence of Ross’s ongoing ties to business interests so close to the Russian president at a time of intense scrutiny of the relationship between the Trump administration and the Kremlin has incensed prominent Democrats involved in Ross’s confirmation to office. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who sits on the US Senate commerce committee, accused Ross of deceiving the public as well as lawmakers who had allowed the confirmation to go through having heard Ross promise to divest himself of any interests that carried potential conflict.
Further responses to the Paradise Papers came from the Democratic leader in the US Senate Chuck Schumer, and the ranking Democratic member of the Senate finance committee, Ron Wyden. In a joint statement they accused Republicans in Congress leading the push towards a reform of the tax code of failing to close egregious loopholes revealed by the leaks.
What are the Paradise Papers and what do they tell us?
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/what-are-the-paradise-papers-and-what-do-they-tell-us
There are also details from 19 corporate registries maintained by governments in secrecy jurisdictions – Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Cook Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Labuan, Lebanon, Malta, the Marshall Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu. The papers cover the period from 1950 to 2016.
How many media organizations have been looking at the data? - The Guardian is one of 96 media partners in the project. A total of 381 journalists from 67 countries have been analysing the material.
Who got the documents – and how? - The leaks were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which also received the Panama Papers last year. Süddeutsche Zeitung shared the material with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a US-based organisation that coordinated the global collaboration. Süddeutsche Zeitung has not, and will not, discuss issues around sourcing.
Do the Paradise Papers focus on companies or individuals? - Both. They are united by one thing – money. Some of the world’s biggest multinationals feature in the leak, including Apple, Nike and Facebook, as well as some of the richest people in the world, from the Queen to Bono, and from the stars of British sitcoms to the stars who grace Hollywood Boulevard.
What do the documents show? - The files show the offshore empire is bigger and more complicated than most people thought. And even companies such as Appleby, which prides itself on being a standard bearer in the field, have fallen foul of the regulators that try to police the industry.
The files set out the myriad ways in which companies and individuals can avoid tax using artificial structures. These schemes are legal if run correctly. But many appear not to be. And politicians around the world are beginning to ask whether they should be banned. Are they fair? Are they moral?
A fundamental question posed by the Paradise Papers is: has tax avoidance in all its guises gone too far?
What does Appleby say? - The firm has denied any wrongdoing, either by itself or by any of its clients. But it has conceded that it is not infallible and has tried to learn from its mistakes. The company has agreed to take part in any formal inquiries that come out of the disclosures. Estera has declined to comment.
Corbyn: UK Queen Should Apologize for Offshore Investments
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960816000766
Speaking at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) annual conference, Corbyn said the revelations contained in the leak were “shocking,” and added that “widespread tax avoidance and evasion on an industrial scale must lead to decisive action and real change,” Politico reported.
Asked if he thought the queen should apologize, Corbyn said according to City A.M., “Anyone who is putting money into a tax haven … should do two things, they should apologize and recognize what it does for society.” “Who loses out? Schools, hospitals, housing,” he added.
According to the leaked documents, some £10 million of the queen’s private money was invested in funds in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda by the Duchy of Lancaster, which provides the queen with an income.
A spokesperson for the Duchy of Lancaster told the BBC that the all of the investments “are fully audited and legitimate.”
Leaked Documents: Queen Elizabeth Has Millions Stashed in Offshore Tax Havens
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960815001476
According to documents obtained by the International Consortium of Journalists, around 10 million pounds (13 million dollars) of the queen's private cash is said to have been tied up in offshore portfolios.
The leak, dubbed the Paradise Papers, contains 13.4 million documents, mostly from one leading firm in offshore finance. Nearly 100 media groups are investigating the leaked papers.
The core of the leak, totaling more than 13.4 million documents, focuses on the Bermudan law firm Appleby, a 119-year-old company, whose clients are corporations and very wealthy people. Appleby helps clients reduce their tax burden; obscure their ownership of assets like companies, private aircraft, real estate and yachts; and set up huge offshore trusts that in some cases hold billions of dollars.
Many of the leaked documents reveal how politicians, multinationals, celebrities and high-net-worth individuals use complex structures of trusts, foundations and shell companies to protect their cash from tax officials or hide their dealings behind a veil of secrecy.
The files show the offshore empire is bigger and more complicated than many had imagined.
Essentially the tax havens are places outside a country’s regulations, to which companies or individuals can redirect money, assets or profits to take advantage of lower taxes rates than their own country.
These jurisdictions are known as offshore tax havens, to use the more technical jargon, offshore financial centers (OFCs). They are generally stable, secretive and reliable, often small islands but not exclusively so, and can vary on how rigorously they carry out checks on wrongdoing.
Britain has a big role in the flourishing of these entities, not simply because so many of its overseas territories and crown dependencies are OFCs, but many of the lawyers, accountants and bankers working in the offshore industry operate out of the city of London.
Wealthy individuals and large companies have one thing in common: enormous amounts of money they want to hide from taxing.
Some of the world’s biggest multinationals feature in the leak, including Apple, Nike and Facebook, as well as some of the richest people in the world, from the British monarch to Bono, and from the stars of British sitcoms to the stars of Hollywood.
Brooke Harrington, renowned author of Capital Without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent, said offshore finance is not for the 1 percent but the .001 percent.
How Queen Elizabeth Invested in Firm That Targeted Mentally Ill
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201711061058853064-paradise-papers-queen-investments/
Millions of pounds from the British monarch's private estate are invested in a Cayman Islands fund as part of an offshore portfolio that has never previously been disclosed, documents, released under the Paradise Papers project — a vast collaborative investigation into offshore tax havens — have revealed.
Files show Queen Elizabeth II, via the Duchy of Lancaster (a portfolio of land, property and assets held in trust for the British Sovereign), has held and continues to hold investments via funds in an array of businesses, including controversial retailer BrightHouse.
In October 2017, the company — the UK's biggest "rent-to-own" retailer — was slapped with a US$20 million fine for not acting as a "responsible lender."
The firm supplies household goods, such as TVs and washing machines, at sky-high credit rates to consumers who cannot access typical borrowing facilities.
Britain's financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, said the firm had overcharged customers and used aggressive sales techniques on customers with mental health problems and learning disabilities.
Moreover, the company itself has limited its own tax bills via large loans to a Luxembourg holding company — between 2007 and 2014, it reported US$2.1 billion in revenue and an operating profit of US$250 million, but paid less than US$8 million in corporation tax.
Pass the Duchy - The Duchy claims it was unaware of the fund's 12-year investment in BrightHouse, until approached by the group of newspapers involved in the Paradise Papers project. It refused to disclose the size of its original investment in the company, made in 2005, as its share price began to rocket.
Elsewhere, the Duchy has investments in a number of overseas funds, including one in Ireland. While it claims to have received no tax advantages from investing offshore, offshore private equity funds are explicitly designed to shield UK investors from paying US taxes on their holdings.
The Duchy invested in BrightHouse via the Dover Street VI Cayman Fund, which invests in international venture capital and private equity funds —
in 2005, Dover Street fund managers contacted investors to request an injection of capital, setting out what was needed and where it would be invested.
A number of firms were targeted for investment, including Vision Capital Partners, a private equiry firm which had purchased BrightHouse two-months prior. The Duchy was asked to contribute US$450,000 to the effort.
The Dover Street VI fund closed December 2014 and has sold off its holdings and remunerated investors since, although based on available data it's unclear what the Duchy has received — although a June 2008 letter included in the leak shows the Duchy was entitled to US$361,367, on which it paid — 0.4 percent (US$1,505) tax.
A Duchy spokesperson told The Guardian, one of the newspapers involved in the investigation, that the Dover Street fund investment represented a mere 0.3 percent of the estate's US$655 million total value.
Hedging Bets - The Duchy also invested around US$7 million in the Jubilee Absolute Return fund, which invests in hedge funds. At the time of initial investment, June 2004, the fund was based in Bermuda — by 2006, it had hopped to Guernsey, another tax haven. The fund did not pay tax on its income or gains until 2016.
The Tax Justice Network (TJN) said "it should come as no surprise" that the Queen used offshore tax havens as part of her wealth management strategy.
The Queen is, after all, the head of state of the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands, Bermuda, and others, which makes her the Queen of Tax Havens. The Queen's role as Head of State of so many leading secrecy jurisdictions puts her in a highly compromised position. The situation is made worse by revelations her wealth management team have invested in an offshore portfolio," the campaign group said.
TJN is calling on Britain's head of state to use her weekly meeting with the Prime Minister to "push for three specific measures," to wit; all British territories make their company ownership registers fully available to public online search at no cost; all British territories require registration and publication of information concerning trusts; the Prime Minister accepts full responsibility for the activities of British secrecy jurisdictions and requires them to automatically share information on offshore trusts with the relevant authorities of all countries across the world.
'Paradise Papers' Reveal Tax Avoidance, Shady Dealings of World's Rich and Powerful
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/11/06/paradise-papers-reveal-tax-avoidance-shady-dealings-worlds-rich-and-powerful
Some of the world's wealthiest and most powerful people will be waking up on Monday to discover that some of their best kept secrets—how they hide their vast wealth and avoid paying taxes—are now being read about in newspapers across the world after the release of a trove of offshore legal and banking documents were leaked to journalists and published Sunday as a joint project called the 'Paradise Papers.'
First obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the documents were then shared with scores of journalists and researchers associated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other media organizations, including the New York Times, BBC, and the Guardian.
"There is this small group of people who are not equally subject to the laws as the rest of us, and that's on purpose," said author and financial expert Brooke Harrington in response to the new insights about how these elites secretly manage their wealth.
As the ICIJ reports, the "trove of 13.4 million records exposes ties between Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump's billionaire commerce secretary, the secret dealings of the chief fundraiser for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the offshore interests of the Queen of England and more than 120 politicians around the world." According to the ICIJ, the documents show how deeply the offshore financial system is entangled with the overlapping worlds of political players, private wealth and corporate giants, including Apple, Nike, Uber and other global companies that avoid taxes through increasingly imaginative bookkeeping maneuvers.
One offshore web leads to Trump’s commerce secretary, private equity tycoon Wilbur Ross, who has a stake in a shipping company that has received more than $68 million in revenue since 2014 from a Russian energy company co-owned by the son-in-law of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In all, the offshore ties of more than a dozen Trump advisers, Cabinet members and major donors appear in the leaked data.
At the center for the leak, explains the Guardian, is the law firm Appleby which has "outposts in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. In contrast to Mossack Fonseca, the discredited firm at the centre of last year's Panama Papers investigation, Appleby prides itself on being a leading member of the 'magic circle' of top-ranking offshore service providers."
But what exactly do the 'Paradise Papers' represent? This video explains:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkVV2hvuQdM (2:06 min.)
According to a summary by the Guardian, the 'Paradise Papers' reveal:
* Millions of pounds from the Queen’s private estate has been invested in a Cayman Islands fund – and some of her money went to a retailer accused of exploiting poor families and vulnerable people.
* Extensive offshore dealings by Donald Trump’s cabinet members, advisers and donors, including substantial payments from a firm co-owned by Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law to the shipping group of the US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross.
* How Twitter and Facebook received hundreds of millions of dollars in investments that can be traced back to Russian state financial institutions.
* The tax-avoiding Cayman Islands trust managed by the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s chief moneyman.
* A previously unknown $450m offshore trust that has sheltered the wealth of Lord Ashcroft.
* Aggressive tax avoidance by multinational corporations, including Nike and Apple.
* How some of the biggest names in the film and TV industries protect their wealth with an array of offshore schemes.
* The billions in tax refunds by the Isle of Man and Malta to the owners of private jets and luxury yachts.
* The secret loan and alliance used by the London-listed multinational Glencore in its efforts to secure lucrative mining rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
* The complex offshore webs used by two Russian billionaires to buy stakes in Arsenal and Everton football clubs.
Speaking with the Guardian, economist Gabriel Zucman—who is releasing a study later this week about the interplay between tax havens and global inequality—says the two are intricately linked.
"Tax havens are one of the key engines of the rise in global inequality," he said. "As inequality rises, offshore tax evasion is becoming an elite sport."
Apple 'shopped around' tax havens before 'shifting its billions to Jersey' after its Irish loophole was shut down, Paradise Papers reveal
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5055537/Paradise-Papers-reveal-Apple-set-offshore-avoid-tax.html
Apple 'shopped around' for a new haven to help them avoid billions in taxes after a loophole they used in Ireland was shut down, the Paradise Papers have revealed.
The tech giant decided set up a secretive new offshore structure in Jersey after sending a tax wish list to the authorities, leaked documents have revealed.
Apple is alleged to have sent a questionnaire to the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Mauritius, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey asking what they could offer.
The document asks how transparent their tax system is, demanded assurances on 'tax exemption' and questioned if there was any 'credible' political opposition that could threaten any tax deal.
An email from a lawyer Bermuda also spelled out that Apple is 'sensitive to publicity' and work was on a 'need to know' basis only.
According to the BBC Apple later moved a subsidiary holding vast amounts of untaxed offshore cash to the Channel Islands after plumping for Jersey.
Apple was last night accused of secretly shifting key parts of its empire to Jersey to keep its tax rate low.
Although it has done nothing illegal, the disclosure is likely to raise fresh questions over the tax arrangements of the world’s most profitable firm.
Until 2014, the US tech firm had been exploiting legal loopholes to funnel all its sales outside of America – about 55 per cent of its revenue – through Irish subsidiaries. These were effectively stateless for taxation purposes, and so incurred hardly any tax.
But after the EU announced in 2013 that it was investigating the arrangement, the Irish government decided that firms incorporated there could no longer be stateless for tax purposes. (Article continues.)
