tender portrait of his five-year-old pink-cheeked daughter, Clara Serena, painted in 1616 and owned by the Liechtenstein family for almost 300 years. It is among scores of paintings by the Flemish master in the collection, the greatest private collection of his work in the world. The Princes of Liechtenstein have been buying and commissioning art, antiques, and fabulous furniture since the 14th century,...
s world, there will be no more havens in which to hide funds from the taxman. Until now, dishonest taxpayers could easily hide assets and income in foreign bank accounts. Even when tax administrations had suspicions, they could not get banking or fiduciary information from some of their partners. The result – billions of tax dollars lost – was not just frustrating for governments: it was fundamentally...
t have happened several years ago. To me it is landmark case to get a very secret place to do such a deal". Jay Krause, partner at international law firm Withers, agreed. "The UK is clearly trying to send the message that there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, particularly as major financial centres buckle under international pressure," said Krause. However, Christian Aid said it was proof that...
s secretive financial system, the Paris prosecutor's office said. Speaking on French television, budget minister Eric Woerth said that tax authorities had flagged up the case notes relating to three businesses whose banking activities were felt to need further examination. "We at the budget ministry investigated all the accounts to the greatest extent possible and passed on three dossiers to the courts,"...
tax havens' have agreed to loosen their notoriously opaque rules on banking secrecy under severe pressure from EU leaders EU leaders today agreed to remove Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg from the "tax haven" blacklist being drawn up by the OECD for the G20 summit in London early next month. Mirek Topolanek, Czech premier, who is chairing the two-day summit, said that the three countries had unconditionally...
s welcome announcement is further evidence that tax secrecy is becoming entirely unacceptable." But the head of the Revenue, Dave Hartnett, warned that Britain was not prepared to draw a line under the many years of tax-dodging in Liechtenstein in the past. News of Liechtenstein's partial capitulation came as a coalition of more than 60 charities, churches and trade unions called for the world's leaders...
re getting one over on the Brits. The perception is wrong. Most of these companies continue to pay taxes in the UK. What attracts them is the way Dublin acts as a gateway to offshore tax havens. A firm can move its headquarters to Dublin and then, because of the extreme laxity of regulation, reincorporate itself in, say, Jersey or Liechtenstein. They thus escape not just from UK company law and taxes,...