[OPE] Being Delaware

Delaware beats Switzerland as most secretive financial center
Nov 1, 2009
By Kim Dixon
WASHINGTON (Reuters)

Move over Switzerland. The tiny state of Delaware
beats the Alpine country in a contest for the most secretive financial
jurisdiction, a tax justice rights group said on Saturday.
The United States, led by the eastern seaboard state, took in $2.6 trillion
in deposits from non-resident corporations and individuals in 2007,
according to a survey of financial jurisdictions analyzed by the Tax Justice
Network. http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/front_content.php?idcatart=2 The
survey of laws, practices and size of inflows in 60 jurisdictions found
Delaware coming in first, followed by Luxembourg and then Switzerland. The
Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom round out the top five. (...) Delaware
is attractive because it does not tax profits realized outside the state and
does not require companies to be physically present, according to the Tax
Justice Network. UBS and Credit Suisse have about 200 entities in the state,
according to the group. There are nearly 700,000 active entities registered
in Delaware -- and about half of those publicly traded in the United States,
according to the group. Total U.S. deposits of non-residents rose from about
$1 trillion in 2001 to $2.6 trillion in 2007, according to the study. In
Luxembourg, non-resident deposits rose to $500 billion from $101 billion
over the same period. In Switzerland, such deposits rose to $1.45 trillion
from $103 billion during the period. Larry Hamermesh, a business law
professor at Widener University in Delaware, said the state gets an unfair
rap. For example, he said tax justice groups criticize the state for not
obtaining companies' beneficial ownership information when they incorporate
in the state. But no other U.S. state actually requires such information,
Hamermesh said. "Delaware is no more secret than any other U.S. state," he
said, noting that Delaware's attraction to business is its flexible laws and
expert courts.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE59U1VB20091101

(Vice President Joe Biden is from Delaware)

_______________________________________________
ope mailing list
ope@lists.csuchico.edu
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
Received on Sat Nov 7 04:30:37 2009