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Zusammenfassung von The Hidden Wealth of Nations

Name: The Hidden Wealth of Nations
Rating: 3.7 (29 reviews)
Author: Gabriel Zucman

Gabriel Zucman

The Scourge of Tax Havens

3.7 (29 Bewertungen)

15 Min.

Kurz zusammengefasst

The Hidden Wealth of Nations by Gabriel Zucman uncovers the world of offshore tax havens and its impact on society. It shows how much wealth is being hidden and reveals how the rich avoid paying taxes, contributing to the increasing wealth inequality in the world.

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Internationale Wirtschaft Wohlstand

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The Hidden Wealth of Nations
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What’s in it for me? Step into the murky waters of the world’s tax havens.

Have you heard of tax havens? You probably have. Recently, there’s been a parade of scandals, all having to do with the rich and their unsavory habit of trying to hide money from the government. And where do they hide that money? Tax havens.

Since their inception, tax havens have been a popular way for the affluent to avoid paying taxes. The issue is often depicted as a moral one. But there’s a bit more to it than that. This practice actually removes money from the treasuries of governments, which could use it for other, more important things. So let’s explore where the hidden wealth of nations really is, and what can be done to uncover it.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

why new tax havens came into existence in the 1980s;
how we can make a good estimate of all the unreported wealth in the world; and
what FATCA is and how it can be a good model for combating tax havens.

The first tax havens appeared after World War I, and their numbers grew as time went on.

As you can imagine, world wars are expensive. And after World War I, many European nations raised income taxes in an effort to rebuild communities and assist veterans.

An extreme case is post-war France. In 1924, the country’s previous top-tier income tax (two percent) had been raised to a staggering 72 percent.

Similar tax increases were popping up across the continent, and, as a result, wealthy Europeans devised methods for dodging these taxes – most commonly, by moving their money to other countries.

Switzerland was the most obvious tax haven. A neutral state during World War I, Switzerland was untouched by combat and had no reason to raise taxes, and it also had a well-established banking network with high interest rates.

By 1938, Swiss banks stored ten times more foreign wealth than in 1920. At the time, this amount accounted for 2.5 percent of the total wealth of European households and would equal about $130 billion in today’s value.

Then in the early 1980s, tax havens began to proliferate.

When Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher came to power in the United Kingdom, she deregulated Britain’s financial markets. This allowed cities like London and Hong Kong, as well as British territories like the Virgin Islands, to compete with Switzerland in the private wealth-management market.

Soon, these policies spread to other European nations like Ireland and Luxembourg, which gave people more options to choose from.

Despite of the competition, Switzerland’s private banking sector continues to thrive. As of 2015, almost $2.3 trillion is still being held in Swiss banks, an 18 percent increase since 2009.

Remarkably, $1.3 trillion of that still comes from wealthy Europeans, representing a staggering ten percent of the total wealth of European citizens.

Now we know how tax havens got their start. In the next blink we’ll learn how people redirect their money.

In 2014, there was an estimated $7.6 trillion hidden in tax havens.

You may have heard about the financial crisis in Greece, which had racked up $350 billion in public debt. That’s a disturbingly large sum. Even more disturbing, however, is the fact that, in 2014, $7.6 trillion of the world’s money was being kept in tax havens. In other words, eight percent of our global wealth was hidden away.

Thought hidden, we can nonetheless track this amount through recorded assets and liabilities.

Tax havens have a damaging impact on governments and citizens.

If you’re wondering how these tax havens affect the world, take a look at Greece’s $350 billion debt and consider the fact that 4.5 percent of the nation’s wealth was being tucked away in foreign banks.

It is estimated that, in 2014, tax havens cost world economies an estimated $200 billion in revenue. Even though that figure represents around one percent of the world’s total government revenue, these losses still have enormous effects.

Most of the laws against tax havens have failed, but there is hope for the future.

We’ve seen the damages that tax havens can cause. So what can be done? A number of initiatives have sprung up; unfortunately, however, most have been ineffective at best and complete failures at worst.

Essentially, most attempts at combating tax havens are simply not strong enough.

To rid the world of tax havens, we need to implement effective and forceful solutions.

So where does the fight against tax havens go from here? Can nations learn from past mistakes as well as take cues from plans that show promise?

The author suggests a twofold plan of action.

To truly combat tax evasion, we must also look at the practices of multinational corporations.

While the measures enumerated in the previous blink would be big victories in the battle against personal tax evasion, preventing corporations from sheltering their money is another matter. Why is it so hard to do away with corporate tax evasion? Well, most of the time, it’s perfectly legal.

As a matter of fact, multinational corporations have a number of ways to avoid paying taxes.

The Final Summary

The key message in this book:

On average, tax evasion costs global governments an estimated $200 billion per year. Approximately $7.6 trillion is being stored in offshore tax havens, accounting for eight percent of global household wealth. These practices harm society and add to increasing economic inequality. So far, initiatives to shut down tax havens have been unsuccessful, but nations could join forces and create effective and forceful measures and end the scourge of tax havens.

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Worum geht es in The Hidden Wealth of Nations?

The Hidden Wealth of Nations (2015) reveals the truth about the decades of deceitful business practices that have added to today’s economic turmoil. Trillions of dollars worldwide go untaxed, and nations put the burden on innocent citizens, which only increases economic tensions. So what can be done to stop tax evasion and get corporations to start paying their dues?

Wer The Hidden Wealth of Nations lesen sollte

People curious about the Panama Papers leak
Students and professionals interested in global finance and economics
Anyone interested in the politics of money

Über den Autor

Gabriel Zucman is a French author and economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a frequent contributor to the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

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