Switzerland, US ‘The Most Corrupt’

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A new study by Tax Justice Network has revealed that Switzerland is the world’s most-corrupt country, with a high secrecy score of 76. The US ranks second, while several European countries hold high positions in the list, ahead of many poor, developing nations.

Switzerland is the grandfather of the world’s tax havens, one of the world’s largest offshore financial centres, and one of the world’s biggest secrecy jurisdictions or tax havens, on 30 January 2018 said the Tax Justice Network’s report Financial Secrecy Index – 2018 Results.

The Tax Justice Network is an independent international advocacy group launched in 2003 (see their history here). Its core mission is to ‘change the weather’ on a wide range of issues related to tax, tax havens and financial globalisation, as well as to push for systemic change.

The report explains that the Swiss will exchange information with rich countries if they have to, but will continue offering citizens of poorer countries the opportunity to evade their taxpaying responsibilities.

These factors, along with on-going aggressive pursuit of financial sector whistle-blowers (resorting at times to what appear to be non-legal methods) are on-going reminders of why Switzerland remains the most important secrecy jurisdiction in the world today, it says.

The Financial Secrecy Index ranks countries for the assistance their legal systems provide to money-launderers, and to all people who seek to protect corruptly-obtained wealth.

“The higher the secrecy score, the more corrupt is. In order to create the Index, a secrecy score is combined with a figure representing the size of the offshore financial services industry in each country.”