Panama – The Next Tax Haven du jour?

alt(bauman.sovereignsociety.com) According to The Financial Times, forget Switzerland – the next secret destination for the wealthy will be Panama, Malta or Singapore.

 
I don’ know who the “accountants” consulted were, but FT says they reckon that cash will start to flood into these “alternative” tax havens after a landmark tax information sharing deal between the Swiss government and United Kingdom and German authorities.
 
The accountants may have made that questionable judgment before they learned about Panama’s new tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) with the U.S. Other Panama TIEAs are being negotiated now.
 
Wealthy investors have long used Swiss bank accounts, drawn by guaranteed bank secrecy and an attractive low tax system. Over US$3 trillion in offshore wealth is held there. While Swiss secrecy will continue tax information exchange means low taxes for many will not – which also means many are likely to move their money elsewhere.
 
The crackdown on secret Swiss accounts is the UK’s latest attempt to claim more tax from the wealthy. The government announced it will spend nearly £1bn (US$1.6bn) to target tax evaders, especially those with offshore accounts.
 
However, people in the UK who move their money to other jurisdictions in order to hide it from Her Majesty’s taxman could be hit with a 200% tax penalty after April next year. Almost as bad as the IRS!
 
Know Any of These Folks?
 
North Americans are still at the top of the “wealth pyramid” with more billionaires than any other region, but Asians are not far behind, according to the first Global Wealth Report from the Credit Suisse Research Institute.
 
The report states that there are more than 1,000 billionaires worldwide, with 500 in North America, 245 in Asia-Pacific and 230 in Europe.
 
Switzerland emerged as the richest nation in the world in terms of average wealth per adult ($372,692). Norway was not far behind, with each Norwegian worth an average of $326,530. But while the US is still in the top 10 for average wealth, it had the least growth over the past decade, with a rise of just 23%. That compares with a whopping 211% for Australians and 195% for Norwegians.
 
According to the report, there are 80,000 ultra-high-net-worth people (those with more than US$50 million in assets) and 24 million high-net-worth people (with between $1m-$50m) in the world.
 
Overall, by 2015 global wealth is expected to increase by 61%. Chinese households will lead the way, and are expected to overtake Japan by 2015 to have the second-largest household wealth in the world, behind the US in first place.
 
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Date Retrieved: December 4, 2010.