0. Mag. iur. Natascha Branz bn@fiebich.com Tel.: +43 316 324453-16
JPA Tax Club Dublin
The role of the U.S.
as a tax haven
Mag. iur. Natascha Branz Tel.:

1. Contents Global transparency initiatives Actions of the European Union
U.S. as a major financial centre
U.S. as a tax haven?
Evaluation reports
Investigations
Main issues of U.S.
Anonymous companies
No automatic exchange of bank account information
U.S. Announcement of new measures to improve financial transparency
Recommendations to support global transparency

2. Global transparency initiatives
Combating financial crimes
Tax evasion
Money laundering
Corruption
Registration of beneficial ownership for companies
Automatic exchange of bank account information between administrations

3. Action of the EU 4th anti-money laundering Directive 2015/849
OECD´s common reporting standard (CRS) for automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI)
EU is participating
Annual exchange about all residents
Not included: ownership of fix assets (houses, yachts, gold, art)
Identification of beneficial owners
U.S. no participation in the CRS

4. U.S. as a major financial centre
20% of the global market share of financial service for non-residents
USD appr. 17 billion foreign assets (2013)
USD billion foreign direct investment (2014)
picture: / James Fryer

5. U.S. as a tax haven?
Investigation 2012 (Findley, Nielson and Sharman,
“…obtaining an anonymous shell company is therefore easier in the U.S. than in the rest of the world…”
“Wyoming, Delaware and Nevada are among the worst in being he most likely to supply untraceable shell companies […] to foreign clients.”
Tax Justice Network´s Financial Secrecy Index 2015
U.S. 3rd top jurisdiction
IMF Analysis 2015 as follow up of the FATF report 2006
U.S. authorities cannot obtain beneficial ownership information of corporations and trusts in an adequate, accurate, timely fashion

6. Main issues of U.S. Availability of anonymous companies
Company registration is regulated by 50 states´ law
In 14 states companies may be created identifying neither shareholders nor managers
Federal level: Employer Identification Number (EIN)
Neither Global nor reciprocal automatic exchange of bank account information
Refused to join the trend for multilateral automatic exchange of information
U.S. domestic law: Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)
30% withholding tax in case of noncompliance

7. U.S. new measures
On May 5th, 2016 the U.S. announced 3 new measures to improve its financial transparency:
Customer Due Diligence Final Rule
Adding new requirements on financial institutions to collect and verify beneficial owners information
Legislative proposal on beneficial ownership
Foreign-owned, single-member liability companies (LLCs)
should obtain EIN
But these measures “(…) are not ambitious enough (…) to close the current gaps in US laws, which allow bad actors to deliberately use U.S. companies to hide money laundering, tax evasion and other illicit financial activities (…).” 

8. Recommendations I
According a study commissioned by the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, the EU should promote that all countries:
Establish central public registries of beneficial ownership for all types of legal persons and legal arrangements
Commit to global automatic exchange of information pursuant to the OECD´s CRS
Publish aggregate information on the financial assets held by non-residents

9. Recommendations II
In order to encourage the level playing field in terms of automatic exchange of information, the EU could:
Include the U.S. on their upcoming European blacklist of tax
havens (expected for summer)
Establish a withholding tax scheme, on all EU-sourced
payments against non-compliant financial institutions

10. Sources
Study „The role of the U.S. as a tax haven – Implications for Europe“ commissioned by the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament:
The_US_as_a_tax_haven_Implications_for_Europe_11_May_FINAL.pdf
Online sources:

11. Thank you for your attention!

12. This presentation was created solely for training purposes
This presentation was created solely for training purposes. We take no responsibility for any action done or missed out of this presentation. The explanations given are naturally of a general kind and can only give a survey over the legal situation and knowledge at that point of time. This is not meant to replace a professional consulting.