Tax Haven - Examples

Examples

See also: List of offshore financial centres and Tax rates around the world

The U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research has suggested that roughly 15% of countries in the world are tax havens, that these countries tend to be small and affluent, and that better governed and regulated countries are more likely to become tax havens, and are more likely to be successful if they become tax havens.

No two commentators can generally agree on a "list of tax havens", but the following countries are commonly cited as falling within the "classic" perception of a sovereign tax haven.

• Bahamas
• Cyprus
• Liechtenstein
• Luxembourg
• Monaco
• Panama
• San Marino
• Seychelles

Non-sovereign jurisdictions commonly labelled as tax havens include:

• Campione d'Italia, Italy
• Jebel Ali Free Zone, United Arab Emirates
• Labuan, Malaysia
• Curaçao (Netherlands)
• Bermuda
• British Virgin Islands
• Cayman Islands
• Jersey
• Guernsey
• Isle of Man
• Turks and Caicos Islands
• Alaska, United States
• Delaware, United States
• Florida, United States
• Nevada, United States
• Texas, United States
• South Dakota, United States
• United States Virgin Islands (United States)
• Wyoming, United States
• Washington, United States

Some tax havens including some of the ones listed above do charge income tax as well as other taxes such as capital gains, inheritance tax, and so forth. Criteria distinguishing a taxpayer from a non-taxpayer can include citizenship and residency and source of income. For example, in the United States foreign nonresidents are not charged various taxes including income tax on interest on U.S. bank deposits by income tax; since the Clinton administration the IRS has proposed collecting information on these depositors to share with their home countries as a regulation; these regulations were eventually finalized in April 17, 2012.