Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/298065 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2024/15
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
Offshore tax havens cause large losses of government revenue by facilitating tax evasion by wealthy individuals. This paper focuses on offshore tax evasion in developing countries and documents two empirical regularities. First, there is no clear development gradient in the exposure to offshore tax havens: a range of indicators suggests that wealth held in offshore tax havens, measured relative to the size of the economy, correlates only weakly with economic development. Second, there is a very strong development gradient in the policy response to this challenge: a highly ambitious type of international cooperation based on automatic exchange of bank account information has emerged in recent years, but only few developing countries participate. We discuss why the particular policy design chosen by the global tax community might be unattractive for developing countries and propose a simple reform that would allow developing countries to reap more benefits from the improvements in global financial transparency.
Subjects: 
tax evasion
tax havens
information exchange
tax enforcement
offshore financial centres
JEL: 
H26
H87
F60
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9267-473-1
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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