G20 embraces crackdown on tax havens, shell companies

The world’s leading economies today embraced a new crackdown on tax havens and the use of shell companies to hide money, as the Panama Papers scandal claimed another victim.

A draft communique from the G20 finance ministers meeting in Washington endorsed a plan that would rip away the shield of secrecy for companies and individuals stocking assets offshore behind anonymous companies, a dramatic move that could put a deep dent in tax evasion, money laundering and illicit finance.

Making the beneficial owners of companies, trusts and foundations transparent “is vital to protect the integrity of the international financial system,” the draft G20 communique said.

The move came as Spain’s industry minister Jose Manuel Soria resigned over allegations he had links to offshore companies.

Files from the leaked document trove of Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca showed Soria was an administrator of an offshore firm in 1992. He was just the latest in a number of powerful officials, including the leaders of Russia, Iceland, Britain and Argentina, linked by the Panama Papers to offshore tax havens.

Soria stepped down admitting “mistakes” in explaining his alleged offshore interests and “the obvious harm that this situation is doing to the Spanish government,” which is one of the five European powers behind the new proposal to end anonymity for the beneficial owners of shell companies.

Yesterday, in the strongest reaction yet to the leaked Panama Papers, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain proposed a blacklist of havens like Panama if they failed to share corporate registry data.

And they proposed setting up databases of the beneficiaries of shell companies for the use of tax and other authorities around the world.

In a joint statement during a meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, finance ministers of the five said: “The recent extensive leaks from Panama show the critical importance of the fight against tax evasion, aggressive tax planning and money laundering.”

“Today we deal another hammer blow against those who hide their illegal tax evasion in the dark corners of the financial system,” British Finance Minister George Osborne said in a statement.

Their proposal was to be weighed by the ministers of the entire G20 today, with expectations they will embrace it, even while some, including the United States, allow the creation of anonymous shell companies, trusts and foundations as part of normal business.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said the illicit financial activities enabled by tax havens undermined the fight against poverty.