by BETHAN RAFFERTY
Tax havens are in many ways a legacy of the British Empire. The use of tax competition as a method of attracting foreign investment and promoting local development started in the 1960s when a number of countries, including many in the Caribbean, gained their independence from European powers. These newly independent nations were in search of development strategies that would be viable in tiny island states with few resources; they were led to believe that promoting “tax competition” would bring wealth to the islands. However “tax management” schemes have often been intimately related to the crippling inequality and injustice that has characterised the region. Ultimately, finance salesmen, along with social elites and multi-national corporations, are the only real beneficiaries of “tax competition.”
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