While low expectations surround the G20 meeting in St. Petersburg, there is one timely matter that resonates with Washington, Moscow, and the entire G20 — the continuing fight against offshore tax havens, writes William Pomeranz.
Low expectations surround the G20 meeting in St. Petersburg on September 5-6.
President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel the pre-G20 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin means the big photo op will likely be the two leaders awkwardly trying to avoid each other. The other headline-making issues in U.S.-Russian relations — Syria, nuclear weapons reduction, missile defense — also appear off the table now. There is one timely matter, however, that resonates with Washington, Moscow, and the entire G20 — the continuing fight against offshore tax havens.
The Cyprus financial collapse in March focused world attention on the outsized role played by offshore banking zones in international tax avoidance and money laundering. Though Russian depositors were the primary victims here, Moscow appeared indifferent to this unprecedented expropriation by Cyprus of the assets of Russian citizens. Putin proved unwilling to help those he viewed as tax-evading oligarchs and corrupt bureaucrats — as well as a few legitimate businesses.
Putin has made the fight against offshore tax havens a key plank of his foreign policy. Other world leaders — including British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francoise Hollande — have also issued strong statements criticizing sophisticated legal strategies that allow companies to skirt the domestic treasury, depriving the state of critical revenues in this time of economic recession.
The United States supports the global effort to rein in offshore tax havens and has gone one step further by passing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). This bill obliges foreign financial institutions to report on bank accounts of U.S. citizens abroad, with a threat of substantial withholding assessments for failing to do so.
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