13 March 2009
Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, issued the following statement today:
“Yesterday and today, in response to growing international pressure, several offshore secrecy jurisdictions, including Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, have announced significant changes in how they will apply their bank secrecy laws. Each of these countries seems to say that it will no longer use secrecy laws to help people evade taxes, and will begin exchanging information on all types of alleged tax evasion, not just so-called ‘tax fraud.’ That is a very welcome development which is long overdue, and we look forward to effective implementation of the promised new policies. Hopefully, dozens of other secrecy jurisdictions which have cost the U.S. Treasury so many billions of dollars will follow suit.
“At the same time, the promised new limits on offshore secrecy will not only likely take years to implement, but even after taking effect, will not eliminate all offshore tax abuses. That’s why we will continue to press Congress to enact our Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, S. 506, to strengthen U.S. offshore tax enforcement and help end offshore abuses that enable U.S. tax cheats to offload their tax burden onto the backs of honest, hardworking taxpayers.”
Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, issued the following statement today:
“Yesterday and today, in response to growing international pressure, several offshore secrecy jurisdictions, including Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, have announced significant changes in how they will apply their bank secrecy laws. Each of these countries seems to say that it will no longer use secrecy laws to help people evade taxes, and will begin exchanging information on all types of alleged tax evasion, not just so-called ‘tax fraud.’ That is a very welcome development which is long overdue, and we look forward to effective implementation of the promised new policies. Hopefully, dozens of other secrecy jurisdictions which have cost the U.S. Treasury so many billions of dollars will follow suit.
“At the same time, the promised new limits on offshore secrecy will not only likely take years to implement, but even after taking effect, will not eliminate all offshore tax abuses. That’s why we will continue to press Congress to enact our Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, S. 506, to strengthen U.S. offshore tax enforcement and help end offshore abuses that enable U.S. tax cheats to offload their tax burden onto the backs of honest, hardworking taxpayers.”
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