Europe’s largest banks routed 25 billion euros (US$27 billion) through tax havens in 2015 — about a quarter of their profit — amid an international crackdown on corporate tax avoidance, an Oxfam International report said.
The 20 biggest lenders paid no tax on 383 million euros of profit posted in seven tax havens that year, while booking 4.9 billion euros of earnings in Luxembourg — more than the UK, Sweden and Germany combined, Oxfam and the Fair Finance Guide International said yesterday.
The study was based on data released under new EU regulations requiring banks to report earnings on a country-by-country basis.
Banks’ subsidiaries in low-tax jurisdictions are twice as profitable as offices elsewhere and employees are four times more productive, generating an average profit of 171,000 euros per person annually compared to 45,000 euros on average, the report said.
Some of the world’s largest companies have been criticized for funneling profits through places such as Ireland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, prompting promises of harsher measures from governments to ensure they collect more tax.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has released a plan aimed at limiting companies’ ability to get low rates in jurisdictions where they lack genuine economic activity, estimating profit-shifting costs governments as much as US$240 billion a year in lost revenue.
“Governments must change the rules to prevent banks and other big businesses using tax havens to dodge taxes or help their clients dodge taxes,” Oxfam senior tax justice advocacy officer Manon Aubry said. “New EU transparency rules give us a glimpse into the tax affairs of Europe’s biggest banks.”
At least 628 million euros of profit was reported by European banks in tax havens where they have no staff, Oxfam said, citing as an example French bank BNP Paribas SA, which said it made 134 million euros of profit in 2015 in the Cayman Islands even though it had no employees there.
Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s largest bank, reported a loss in its home country and profits of 1.9 billion euros in tax havens, according to the report.
Banks came under scrutiny for helping their clients evade taxes after last year’s leak of offshore financial records, known as the Panama Papers, which exposed billions of dollars in assets hidden in havens around the world.
Seeking to contain the fallout from the scandal — which identified companies such as HSBC Holdings Plc and UBS Group AG — governments have vowed to crack down on tax evasion and money laundering to help regain public trust.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day