G20: Tax shelter purge ends with a fudge
Plans to name and shame international tax havens ended in a diplomatic fudge last night.
Grey matter: Tax havens such as Monaco were moved from a 'black list' to a 'grey list'.
World leaders agreed to publish a blacklist of countries refusing to sign up to financial anti-secrecy rules but after frantic negotiations only four were included - none of them regarded as major tax shelters.
Traditional tax havens - such as Monaco and Gibraltar - were included on a 'grey list' of countries that have signed up to, but not implemented, key standards of tax and banking openness.
Multi-billion-pound financial centres such as Switzerland and Belgium, which pride themselves on the discretion of their banking sectors and are unwilling to compromise, are also included on this list.
But glaring tax avoidance centres, such as Jersey and Guernsey were given the all-clear after pledging to share more financial information.
The agreement allowed all sides to claim victory. The UK and France had demanded a crackdown on tax havens, while China and Brazil
opposed strict disclosure rules. Chinese president Hu Jintao tried to derail the rules amid concern they would undermine his financial centres of Hong Kong and Macau, which are also excluded from the grey list following last-minute talks.
The leaders agreed tax havens would face 'sanctions' if they refused to comply with regulations being drawn up. Punishments include cutting aid and increasing costs for those who bank in them.
• Blacklist: Costa Rica, Malaysia, Philippines, Uruguay
• Grey list: Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cayman Islands, Chile, Cook Islands, Dominica, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guatemala, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Montserrat, Nauru, Netherlands Antilles, Niue, Panama, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Singapore, Switzerland, Turks and Caicos Islands, Vanuatu.
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