ESG Academy
2019-07-26

Paradise Papers: How tax havens work and why they are a problem


Paradise Papers: How tax havens work and why they are a problem

Paradise Papers: How tax havens work and why they are a problem

The paradise papers are the latest document leaked to reveal how thousands of Canadians keep money offshore and how this problem is growing.
The paradise papers是最新洩露的文件,揭示了數千名加拿大人如何將資金留在海外以及這個問題如何發展。

Now, other leaks have shown how the wealthy use tax havens to avoid paying taxes, what this one shows is the extent to which Canada has become a major player in this game.
現在,其他洩密的文件已經顯示出富人如何利用避稅天堂避稅,這表明加拿大已成為這場比賽的主要參與者的程度。

So, what are tax havens and why are they a particular problem for Canada?
那麼,什麼是避稅天堂?為什麼它們成為加拿大的特殊問題?

Here's a quick run-through on how they help people avoid paying tax.
這裡有個精簡的演示他們如何幫助人們逃避稅務。

If you want to move your money abroad, you have to have someone set up a company or a trust pay someone to act as the director or trustee in that country, though they're usually a little more than a name on a paper.
如果你想把錢轉移到國外,你必須讓某人設立公司或信託支付某人作為該國的董事或受託人,儘管他們通常只是掛名的。

Then, you can start to move your money into an account.
然後,妳就可以開始將錢轉移到這個帳戶中。

And while your money is offshore, it can grow and there are ways to put off having to pay any taxes on it here in Canada and it's all perfectly legal.
當你的資金轉變為海外的,它可以成長且有很多方法可以避免在加拿大支付任何稅款,並且這一切都是完全合法的。

There's a lot of places you can choose to do this.
有很多地方可以讓你這樣做。

There are more than 60 tax havens around the world including Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Guernsey and a lot of tiny islands in the Caribbean.
全世界有60多個避稅天堂,包括瑞士,列支敦士登,根西島和加勒比地區的許多小島嶼。

Because in addition to sandy beaches places like Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, they all have very very attractive tax deals with Canada.
因為像百慕達、開曼群島和英屬維京群島這些地方除了有沙灘,它們還有與加拿大間非常吸引人的稅收協議。

Canada doesn't officially track the amount of money it is parked offshore, but there's an estimated $250 billion dollars in Canadian money in tax havens and that's just the money that's there legally.
加拿大沒有正式追踪其目前停滯在海外的資金數量,但估計有2500億加幣在避稅天堂,這只是合法的錢。

And all that money is costing Canadian taxpayers a lot.
而這些逃漏的稅金正在增加加拿大納稅人的負擔。

A conservative estimate suggests that Canada loses about 6 billion dollars in tax revenue every year because the tax havens.
一項保守的估計表明,由於避稅天堂,加拿大每年損失約60億美元的稅收。

Just to give you an idea, that's enough for 200,000 new childcare spaces, 650 safe drinking water systems on First Nations reserves, 18 Super Hornet fighter jets.
只是講個大概,這麼多錢足以辦200,000個新的托兒所,在第一民族保護區650個開發安全飲用水系統,18個超級大黃蜂戰鬥機。

To be clear, that's money that could become into Canada in-taxes if it wasn't so easy to avoid paying those taxes by keeping it offshore.
需要知道的是,如果海外避稅法不是這麼容易的話,這些錢會是加拿大的稅收。

But it's not always done legally, because these tax havens have very strict secrecy laws.
但這些資金來源不是都是合法的,因為這些避稅天堂有非常嚴格的保密法。

Those laws can be used for illicit ends, which is why they can be used to launder money, hide money from say your spouse, or conceal illegal activities because it can be hard to tell what money's yours and where it came from.
這些法律會被非法分子所利用,這就是為甚麼他們可以拿來洗錢,藏匿不為人知的資產、或掩蓋非法行動;因為很難查出這是否是你的正當收入以及來源。

So, why hasn't Canada crack down on the rules that allow this to happen? A good question.
所以,為何加拿大政府還沒有開始制定新法律來阻止這些行為發生呢?好問題。

Some politicians have tried to make the rules tougher.
一些政治人物試圖讓法規更加強硬。

But instead of cracking down, Canada's made it in some ways easier to avoid tax this way.
但並沒有起到防治作用,反而從另一方面讓避稅變得更加容易。

Since 2009, Ottawa signed deals with two dozen tax havens including the Cayman Islands, Liechtenstein and the Isle of Man.
自2009年以來,渥太華與包括開曼群島,列支敦士登和馬恩島在內的二十多個避稅天堂簽署了協議。

These deals are designed to compel those countries to share more information about Canadians who have accounts and money there, so less secrecy.
這些交易旨在迫使這些國家分享有關那裡有賬戶和金錢的加拿大人的更多信息,因此保密程度降低了。

But in exchange, they actually make it easier for Canadian companies to set up there and bring home the profits tax-free. 
但作為交換,它們讓加拿大公司更容易在那裡設立並且將營收免稅的帶回國內。

And you're probably not surprised to know since those deals were first put in place, the use of tax havens has exploded.
而且你可能並不感到驚訝,因為這個協議開始實施後,避稅天堂已經被爆炸性的使用。

 

Copyright Announcement: The above videos are  from the official Youtube channel of the organization. Paradise Papers: How tax havens work and why they are a problem https://www.youtube.com/user/cbcnews . The videos we selected are all publicly available on the official channel, and we do not own the copyright of these videos. Our work on Chinese translation for this film is free for the 1.2 billion audiences in Mandarin Chinese around the world to watch and learn SDGs and SROI advertising campaigns.

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