July 23, 2012

The Price of Offshore Revisited, a study commissioned by the Tax Justice Network, claims that a global super-rich elite had at least $21 trillion hidden in secret tax havens by the end of 2010. That figure is equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined. The author of the study claims that $21tn is actually a conservative figure and the true scale could be $32tn. The report uses data from the Bank of International Settlements, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and national governments. It deals only with financial wealth deposited in bank and investment accounts, and not other assets such as property and yachts. At the end of 2010, the 50 leading private banks alone collectively managed more than $12.1tn in cross-border invested assets for private clients. The three private banks handling the most assets offshore are UBS, Credit Suisse, and Goldman Sachs. The report says that the super-rich move money around the globe through an "industrious bevy of professional enablers in private banking, legal, accounting, and investment industries.” So, less than 100,000 people worldwide own about $9.8tn of this untaxable wealth, including the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.