Yes We Are A Haven; Get Over It!

For decades, Switzerland was known as the premier tax haven of the world with its bank secrecy laws. That is slowly but surely changing with a new German-Swiss tax treaty taking effect next year. With Switzerland going, going, gone; rich people need a new tax haven to keep their assets and evade taxes. 

Singapore has step up to take Switzerland’s place as the tax haven of choice for the rich.

The rich 1% has moved billions of dollars through Singapore due to our secretive bank laws, tax rates that top at 20% and no capital gains tax. These measures had the intend effect. It has caused people to move their money to Singapore. Our entire economy, including our GDP for the past few years, comes directly from this money inflow.

And despite the Singapore’s government public stance on the matter, the fact that we are a tax haven is beyond doubt. Everyone from Indonesia to India to Germany says we are. Indonesia even has a list of over 20 Indonesians currently living in Singapore that are wanted in Indonesia for questioning on tax evasion, fraud and a list of other white collar crimes. The Indian government even hinted that nearly 10% of the foreign direct investment in India came through Singapore because Indian nationals are routing money through us to avoid taxes.

This fact is almost public knowledge and frankly I think the Singapore government should just admit that we are a tax haven. We want these rich people to put their money in Singapore and we are willing to bend a little to get things done. What’s wrong with that? I mean we haven’t done anything Switzerland hasn’t done for years.

Besides…no one is going to believe us when we denied it anyway.