|
|
 |
|
HANDS ON:
Owens takes on offshore tax havens |
|
 |
|
Jeffrey P. Owens
56, British
Why He Matters: He's busting open secretive offshore tax havens
Location: Paris
|
 |
Posted Sunday, Dec. 1, 2002; 15.43GMT
Owens spent a week in the Cayman Islands in October — for work. As the main tax guru for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), he is orchestrating a vast international effort to get offshore tax havens such as the Caymans to clean up their act. That means, principally, being more transparent about the methods they use to attract investment and being willing to exchange tax information with other countries. It's a delicate task, as many havens are stubbornly opaque in order to attract business. But since the work started four years ago with the publication of a key OECD report on "harmful tax competition," some 31 havens have signed up, leaving just seven holdouts, including Monaco, Liechtenstein and Vanuatu. "We're all pleasantly surprised by the willingness of the parties to come to the table," says Owens, who boasts that his great-grandfather wrote the Welsh national anthem.
A change of tune by the OECD itself has helped. Ian Kelly, the Isle of Man's tax assessor, says the initial 1988 report appeared arbitrary but that "cooperative" tax havens are now included in the discussions on the details. "I've always found Owens to be quite a reasonable sort of guy," says Kelly. "He's trying to steer a very difficult round of negotiations." Not everyone is happy. An August report by attorneys Stikeman Elliott on behalf of some havens slammed the OECD's efforts as "discriminatory and inconsistent," not least because it wasn't probing curious practices by its own members, especially trusts administered in Switzerland and rules in the U.S. state of Delaware that give special protection to limited liability companies.
 |
 |
|
S T R I K E S
 Back to the Barricades
Unions across Europe are striking, bringing back memories of the bad old 1970s. Do governments have the stomach for a fight?
E U R O P E
 Serbia Votes
Hard-line nationalism tries to make a comeback in the Balkans
|
I R A Q
The Kurdish Question
Iraqi Kurds would welcome the fall of Saddam, but fear the instability that may come after he's gone.
P R O F I L E
Brawn and Brains
Ukrainian heavyweight (and Ph.D.) Wladimir Klitschko
|
|
|
 |
|
