Guidelines
1. Choose one story that has been revealed from around the world relating to assets being moved through or placed in an offshore tax haven. Detail the events that has allowed this licit or illicit movement of money through the tax haven. Three distinct phases of this process are 1) placement 2) layering and 3) integration.
2. Determine, if there are any, what the larger implications of the movement of these assets are. The best of these implications will be ones that are supported by the words and analyses of others. However, novel analyses of these implications can be provided as long as there is some rational basis for making them (i.e. you can't just wildly make up what the consequences are). Try to establish a cause and effect relationship as well as you can.
3. Use MLA parenthetical citation to support your discussion of the process of the movement of the assets and/or the implications of the assets being moved to these offshore tax havens
4. In the conclusion you can touch on one or all of the following questions:
a) are tax havens justified in their claims that they provide a useful service by ensuring "tax competition" and therefore hold down the percentage of revenues/income being taxed by overzealous states?
b) In the new tax bill passed by Congress, the corporate tax rate is reduced from 35% to 21% in the belief that this lower rate rate will incentivize American companies to not park revenues offshore and subsequently repatriate this money into the American economy where it can create opportunities for American citizens through direct investment. Given what you have learned about the tax haven industry do you think that this reduction in tax will incentivize American companies to do this?
c) what evidence is there to support the idea that the establishment of either/both an automatic global exchange of information about bank accounts and/or globally transparent register of companies is possible?
d) if average Americans could take measures to avoid paying taxes by moving funds to offshore accouts, do you think they would do so or would the principle of fairness stop them?
Study Questions
ICIJ [International Consortium of Investigative Journalists]
Additional Materials
"Panama Papers: The Secrets of Dirty Money" (all articles from Süddeutsche Zeitung)
"What Are the Panama Papers? A Guide to History's Biggest Data Leak" from The Guardian
"Panama Papers: The Real Scandal is What's Legal" by Brooke Harrington for The Atlantic
Undercover in New York [video]
The New Tax Havens [60 Minutes video]
List of Tax Havens
Ethical Consumer's list of Tax Havens
Here's How Much Tax Cheats Cost the Government a Year by Chris Matthews (April 29, 2016) in Fortune
Shell Companies Hide $15 Trillion From Taxes, Study Reports by Lisette Voytko in Forbes (Sep. 9, 2019)
Luxembourg Leaks and Paradise Papers
Daphne Caruana Galizia
Ten Arrested over Murder of maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in The Guardian
Secrets of the Malta Journalist's Murder Revealed by Barbie Latza Nadeau for The Daily Beast
Lyudmilla Putina
Putin's Ex-wife Linked to Multi-Million Dollar Property Business by Svetlana Reiter for Reuter's
Vladimir Putin's Ex-Wife Lyudmilla and New Husband Have $7 Million French Villa by Christopher Brennan for New York Daily News
Arguments for the Benefit of Offshore Tax Havens
"Why Tax Havens are a Blessing" by Daniel J. Mitchell for The Cato Institute
Paul Manafort
Paul Manafort, American Hustler by Franklin Foer for The Atlantic
Real Estate in Manhattan
America's Own Island Haven: Manhattan by Michael Hudson for ICIJ
How Apple, Nike and Uber Avoid Paying Corporate Taxes by Declaring No Local Residency
Leaked Documents Expose Secret Tale of Apple's Offshore Island Hop by Simon Bowers [ICIJ]
How Nike Stays One Step Ahead of the Regulators by Simon Bowers
Nike Could Owe Billions in Back Taxes if New EU Probe Finds Against It by Simon Bowers
Ukraine
The West Enables Graft in Ukraine
Over 68% of Ukrainians don't trust Poroshenko – poll (October 26, 2017) by UNIAN Informationa Agency
Dan Gertler
Everything You Need to Know About Glencore, Dan Gertler and their interest in DRC in The Guardian (Nov. 5, 2017)
Michael Cohen
Firm Tied to Russian Oligarch Made Payments to Michael Cohen by Mike McIntire, Ben Protess and Jim Rutenberg in The New York Times (May 8, 2018)
Art
Panama Papers Show How the Very Rich Use Art to Get Richer by Felix Salmon [Fusion (4/7/2016)]
Has the Art World Become An Unwitting Partner in Crime? by Graham Bowley and William K. Rashbaum for The New York Times
FIFA
Playing Both Sides by Thomas Kistner, Frederik Obermaier, Bastian Obermayer, Mauritius Much [Süddeutsche Zeitung]
FIFA Has Made the "Beautiful Game" Ugly [Background for a Panel Presented By the ABILA Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Committee International Law Weekend, November 7, 2015*
The Shady World of Offshore Companies by ARD (German Public Television) [in English]
Iceland
Effects of 2008 banking collapse in Ideland
Putin's Money and the Money of the Russian Oligarchs