A new list of secrecy jurisdictions, from Brazil

Brazil's ministry of finance has published a list of jurisdictions or dependencies that we would call secrecy jurisdictions. The accompanying press release notes that Brazil will be able to use special instruments to deal with tax planning structures.

The list, replacing a list of 53 jurisdictions published in 2002, contains two sections.

The first (below) contains 65 jurisdictions which do not tax income, or which tax at below 20%, or whose internal legislation does not allow access to information about the ownership or composition of legal persons (which includes corporations.) This includes the usual suspects such as the Channel Islands ("Ilhas do Canal"), Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

The second is a list of eight "privileged fiscal regimes" (regimes fiscais privilegiados) which do not necessarily have low tax rates but whose legislation contains fiscal privileges for certain types of legal persons. We blogged on this excellent Brazilian innovation last year - see here for more details.

We are heartened to see that several (but not all) jurisdictions that concern us are listed here, which are often excluded from official lists of secrecy jurisdictions. We are especially pleased to see the United States on this list: the top-ranking secrecy jurisdiction on our Financial Secrecy Index. This second list involves:

Luxembourg (with respect to its holding companies;)

Uruguay (with respect to its Financial Investment Companies (Sociedades Financeiras de Inversão, Safis);

Denmark, with respect to its holding companies;

Netherlands, with respect to its holding companies;

Iceland, with its International Trading Companies (ITCs);

Hungary, with its offshore KFTs;

United States, with its state non-resident Limited Liability Companies (LLCs)

Spain, with its International Spanish Holding structures (Entidad de Tenencia de Valores Extranjeros;

Malta, with its International Trading Companies (ITCs) and International Holding Company (IHCs).

The first list is here (in the original Portuguese format):

I - Andorra;

II - Anguilla;

III - Antígua e Barbuda;

IV - Antilhas Holandesas;

V - Aruba;

VI - Ilhas Ascensão;

VII - Comunidade das Bahamas;

VIII - Bahrein;

IX - Barbados;

X - Belize;

XI - Ilhas Bermudas;

XII - Brunei;

XIII - Campione D’Italia;

XIV - Ilhas do Canal (Alderney, Guernsey, Jersey e Sark);

XV - Ilhas Cayman;

XVI - Chipre;

XVII - Cingapura;

XVIII - Ilhas Cook;

XIX - República da Costa Rica;

XX - Djibouti;

XXI - Dominica;

XXII - Emirados Árabes Unidos;

XXIII - Gibraltar;

XXIV - Granada;

XXV - Hong Kong;

XXVI - Kiribati;

XXVII - Lebuan;

XXVIII - Líbano;

XXIX - Libéria;

XXX - Liechtenstein;

XXXI - Macau;

XXXII - Ilha da Madeira;

XXXIII - Maldivas;

XXXIV - Ilha de Man;

XXXV - Ilhas Marshall;

XXXVI - Ilhas Maurício;

XXXVII - Mônaco;

XXXVIII - Ilhas Montserrat;

XXXIX - Nauru;

XL - Ilha Niue;

XLI - Ilha Norfolk;

XLII - Panamá;

XLIII - Ilha Pitcairn;

XLIV - Polinésia Francesa;

XLV - Ilha Queshm;

XLVI - Samoa Americana;

XLVII - Samoa Ocidental;

XLVIII - San Marino;

XLIX - Ilhas de Santa Helena;

L - Santa Lúcia;

LI - Federação de São Cristóvão e Nevis;

LII - Ilha de São Pedro e Miguelão;

LIII - São Vicente e Granadinas;

LIV - Seychelles;

LV - Ilhas Solomon;

LVI - St. Kitts e Nevis;

LVII - Suazilândia;

LVIII - Suíça;

LIX - Sultanato de Omã;

LX - Tonga;

LXI - Tristão da Cunha;

LXII - Ilhas Turks e Caicos;

LXIII - Vanuatu;

LXIV - Ilhas Virgens Americanas;

LXV - Ilhas Virgens Britânicas.

Thanks to Jean Meckaert for pointing this out.