Is there a future for tax havens in view of recent developments?

THE meeting of heads of state of the G20 countries in London in early April 2009 reached agreement on initiatives against tax havens on the issues of lack of transparency and lack of exchange of information.

The upshot was that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) issued a “blacklist” of jurisdictions considered to be tax havens and deemed not cooperative in exchanging tax information. Labuan’s initial listing has now been removed in view of the timely positive response by the government.