Ralph O'Neal, Prime Minister of the British Virgin Islands, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Road Town, Tortola, Thursday, April 2, 2009. As an offshore haven, the British Virgin Islands host hundreds of thousands of companies while the territory's leader insists the government tolerates no fraud. Tax havens worldwide are under attack by G-20 leaders in London. (AP Photo/Todd VanSickle)Islands Resent Crackdown Of Tax Havens By G-20 -- Yahoo News/AP
TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands – More than 400,000 companies share a few local addresses in this tiny Caribbean financial center, where their incorporation papers are kept in a gray two-story building.
The vast majority have no employees on the island. All conduct their business elsewhere and many avoid paying taxes back home.
And yet the British Virgin Islands welcomes their business, which provides more than half of the government's revenue, making it one of the Caribbean's most prosperous places.
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My Comment: Tax avoidance has been with us since the concept of taxes was developed .... and I can easily predict that it will still continue. My concern is the use of these tax havens by dictators, arms merchants, and criminals. Stopping these tax havens will be a big step to help in bringing peace to many places in the world.