Tax haven consists of a certain region (country or territory) with attractive tax conditions for foreign investors, mainly for having low taxes and complete bank secrecy.
Legally, tax havens are considered offshore with special tax regimes, where local legislation allows capital from other countries to be managed more "easily", without the need to identify those involved with the accounts banking.
Furthermore, taxes in tax havens are much lower (or nil) compared to the average charged by international tax law.
Learn more about the meaning of Offshore.
Typically, countries and regions that adopt more simplified tax planning (tax havens) aim to attract the attention of foreign investors. These, in turn, are looking for more attractive ways to reduce taxes levied on the capital they own.
The attempt to reduce the payment of taxes using legal mechanisms is called tax avoidance. However, tax havens are also widely used for the practice of tax evasion.
Learn more about the meaning of Evasions.
Due to the range of protections that tax havens offer to investors' identities, these "haunts" have become the scene of scandals.
money laundry obtained from unlawful acts, such as corruption, organized crime, terrorism and drug trafficking, principally.According to the Brazilian Internal Revenue Service, any country that applies a tax of less than 20% of income or that allows the confidentiality of information of companies and financial companies is considered a paradise Supervisor.
The term “tax haven” arose from a misinterpretation of English tax haven, which literally means “tax haven”. The similarity of the words "haven" and "heaven” (“paraíso”), created the expression “tax haven” in the translation into Portuguese.
List of the main Tax Havens in the world
Among the best known tax havens are:
- Andorra
- Bahamas
- Luxembourg
- Switzerland
- Cayman Islands
- Ireland
- Bermuda Islands
- Singapore
- Belgium
- Hong Kong
- United Arab Emirates
- Fiji islands
- Jamaica
- monaco
- Marshall Islands
- Panama.
However, there are several other locations where tax havens are common.