ABSTRACT

We are grateful for the helpful comments and advice from Professor Jason C. Sharman, Professor Ronen Palan, Professor Duncan Wigan, and May Hen.

ABSTRACT

In the wake of its departure from the European Union, Britain is in a position to consider and pursue a new strategy towards combatting domestic and global tax evasion. This paper outlines the context for such a strategy, analyses various options for Britain, and makes a series of recommendations. The two key proposals are (1) that the country ought to support the multilateral efforts of the OECD by exerting pressure on the US to join the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), and (2), that it should also use its position to highlight problems with privacy in the architecture of Automatic Exchange of Information (AEI). The paper further sees an opportunity for Britain to be a leading protagonist in the establishment of a Global Asset Registry (GAR) as well as contributing to more global representation and inclusion in tax governance, potentially through the Commonwealth. Lastly, the paper makes a series of recommendations for domestic reform including combatting tax evasion in the City of London by ensuring that Corporate Service Providers (CSPs) have verifiable information about their clients, as well and introducing registers of beneficial ownership in Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) through Orders in Council. The paper thus fundamentally argues that a British strategy on tax evasion must be based on multilateralism, reciprocity, transparency and privacy, as well as pay attention to the historical role played by Britain in the development of offshore as a legal category.