Tax havens and financial secrecy

Tax revenues underpin most government expenditures worldwide and the taxation of multinational enterprises (MNEs) plays an important role in revenue mobilization efforts, which are hampered when MNEs avoid paying corporate taxes. While tax havens and financial secrecy have been affecting countries worldwide for decades, it is only in recent years that the associated challenges have begun to be subject to adequately intensive scrutiny in both research and policy. Even so, the existing literature still seems to be inconclusive on a number of important questions. In this project, we develop new methodologies and use new data to answer the following three questions: First, how big are the government revenue losses and other negative effects for affected countries, especially developing countries? Second, which tax havens are responsible for these negative effects? Third, what mechanisms do MNEs use to hide their activities with the help of financial secrecy provided by tax havens, and what are the effects of such behaviour?

Project team of FSV UK (1)

prof. Petr Janský, Ph.D.

Principal investigator

+420 222 112 325

petr.jansky@fsv.cuni.cz  |  jansky@fsv.cuni.cz