Message #74704

[Bianca]

Tax haven





The State has no income tax for individuals. The lack of personal income tax has led to a considerable number of wealthy "tax refugee" residents from European countries who derive the majority of their income from activity outside Monaco; celebrities such as Formula One drivers attract most of the attention, but the vast majority of them are considerably less well-known business people.

In 2000, a report by French parliamentarians Arnaud Montebourg and Vincent Peillon alleged that Monaco has lax policies with respect to money laundering, including within its famed casino, and that the government of Monaco puts political pressure on the judiciary so that alleged crimes are not properly investigated.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) issued in 1998 a first report on the consequences of the tax havens financial systems. Monaco did not appear in the list of these territories until 2004, when OECD became indignant regarding the Monegasque situation[3] and denounced it in its last report[4] (as well as Andorra, the Principality of Liechtenstein, Liberia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands) underlining its lack of co-operation as regards financial information disclosure and availability.

In 2000, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) underlined that Monaco suffers a great lack of adequate resources. The Principality is no longer blamed in the FATF 2005 report, as well as all other territories in 2006.

Since 2003, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has identified Monaco, along with 36 other territories, as a tax haven.

The Council of Europe also decided to issue reports naming tax havens. 22 territories, Monaco included, were thus evaluated between 1998 and 2000 on a first round. Monaco is the only territory that refuses to perform the second round, initially forecast between 2001 and 2003, whereas the 21 other territories are implementing the third and last round, planned between 2005 and 2007