The Government has slammed international media reports that Malta is being used by global companies and wealthy individuals for tax evasion purposes.
It is preposterous to claim that all €11 billion worth of Maltese deposits are of dubious”quality
International aid agency Oxfam mentioned Malta along with a number of other EU member states as acting as tax havens with billions of euros stashed in its banks to evade tax.
According to Oxfam’s estimates, there is €45 billion in ‘dubious’ foreign deposits in Maltese accounts.
The Finance Ministry dismissed these claims and questioned the agency’s conclusions.
In a research paper, published last week in view of talks among EU leaders on fighting tax evasion, Oxfam said that more than two-thirds, or €9.3 trillion, of global offshore wealth could be found in EU “tax havens”, including Malta, Luxembourg and Andorra.
Asked by Times of Malta about the way Oxfam reached these conclusions, report author Matti Kohonen said the calculations were based on estimates published by the Bank of International Settlement and profits declared from accounts held by foreigners in various EU member states.
“According to our research, apart from Malta, other EU member states are being used as tax havens including Cyprus, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Latvia and the UK’s overseas territories,” Mr Kohonen said.
“Not all Maltese registered companies have publicly available beneficial ownership data and exchange of information is quite low.
“Although not all deposits in Malta are considered to be owned by tax evaders, our calculations are that the majority are,” he said.
The Finance Ministry harshly criticised Oxfam’s research and described the conclusions as surprising, since the €45 billion figure suggested by Oxfam represents the total amount of deposits held in banks based in Malta.
€45 billion
the total of ‘dubious’ foreign deposits in Maltese accounts, according to Oxfam
The Government said that, unlike some EU countries, Malta does not permit any banking secrecy. It constantly and consistently cooperates in exchanging information whenever requested by the authorities of other countries.
“It is not clear what Oxfam understands by the word ‘dubious’, or even what criteria it used to determine that deposits can be ‘dubious’ or not; but even so, it is preposterous to claim that all €11 billion worth of Maltese deposits, which include lifetime savings, are of dubious quality,” a Finance Ministry spokesman told Times of Malta.
“The same can be said for those deposits made by non-residents in our local or international banks,” he said.
According to Oxfam, the EU must tackle the loss of revenue from tax evasion as this might make a big difference to help the world come out of poverty.
Its report concludes that at least €14.3 trillion was hidden in tax havens worldwide, signifying a loss of €156 billion in tax revenue.