Should offshore financial centers be banned worldwide?

[Nikolai Petroff]

Let's face it, they exist for avoiding tax and laundering dirty money (when I mean dirty, I'm not just talking about hiding money from your ex-wife, but money from terror, drugs etc). Only the already filthy rich use them anyways.

Should the Caymans, Cook Islands, Jersey etc be threatened with invasion unless they cooperate and become transparent?

[Nikolai Petroff]

toppstuff said:

Another example where offshore companies are useful..

Many companies listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange are registered in Cayman Islands.

Why? Because Cayman Islands law is very similar in structure and operation to UK law. Investors like this.
Cayman makes it easy and fast to set the company up.

Does it save tax? Not a bean. None at all. This is because Hong Kong collects taxes on local listed companies and it doesn't matter where they are registered.

Thousands of companies are set up in this way. There is no tax evasion.

But you won't read this in the media.

Just because some owners of numbered accounts are law abiding citizens, doesn't change the fact that many are not. Hence they were banned.