Transparency vs Privacy

Perhaps sensing that time is running out for such games, the offshore financial services industry has raised the campaign for beneficial ownership concealment and avoidance to a whole new level, creating ownerless ‘chimeric’ entities and, in the case of the adaptation of blockchain and cryptocurrency transactions, literally moving to a higher, meta-jurisdictional plane. [2] Chimeric Entities Obscurity is made all the easier, and impunity all the more likely, by the very nature of the solutions employed, which are little known and even less well understood. They are mostly referred to by regulators, law enforcers and academics alike in merely generic terms. But this will not do. Not only structures but also concepts follow a different evolutionary path offshore. There can be unintended and unforeseen (or fortuitous) consequences when a legislative initiative, developed onshore, transfers to a low tax jurisdiction. Simply castigating ‘offshore trusts’ and ‘shell companies’ without specifics, as so many commentators do, is on a par with describing every illness as an ‘ague’ or ‘bug.’ A detailed knowledge of the construction and effects of the structures is essential. To understand how each chimeric structure functions is to be able to challenge it on its own terms, and to predict

Background Political momentum on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes slowly rose at the end of the 1990s [1]. Following the subprime crisis of 2007 and the financial scandals that followed, the G20 mandated a restructured Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) in April 2009 to ensure the effective exchange of information (EOI) for tax purposes between jurisdictions. Close to fifteen years later, the international tax cooperation landscape has been totally transformed with two EOI standards fully implemented, and the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) at the early stage of implementation. The EOI implementation has been truly global, and ensures that the level playing field is respected. While fifteen years ago, exchange of banking account information was impossible for many jurisdictions around the globe due to strict banking secrecy, information on over 123 million financial accounts was exchanged automatically in 2022, covering total assets of almost EUR 12 trillion. This sole example illustrates the magnitude of the changes taking place over the last decade. This article provides an overview of the main achievements thus far and the next steps to continue fostering transparency and EOI globally, ensuring the level playing field, and