By Adam Hurwitz
An unprecedented leak of over 11.5
million documents linking many world leaders to offshore companies used to
avoid taxes in their home country has shaken the global financial world. The
lasting effect of these “Panama
Papers” remains to be seen, but many countries are using this leak to
tighten up regulations on those who would use these offshore accounts to dodge
taxes. Recently,
British Finance Minister George Osborne has said Europe’s five richest
countries agreed to work together to deliver “a hammer blow against those that
would illegally evade taxes and hide their wealth in the dark corners of the
financial system.” The recent
ouster of Iceland’s prime minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson and pressure
against British Prime Minister David Cameron after being implicated in the
papers suggests these leaks will warrant an international response. Some action
has already
been taken ‑ France put Panama on its
blacklist of tax havens and the Organisation
for Economic Co‑operation and Development (OECD) convened an
emergency meeting in Paris to push new global anti-tax-evasion rules. These
papers have caused a stir in the global financial scene and more is sure to
come.
