# United States as a tax haven

Part of a series on :
Taxation :
An aspect of fiscal policy :
Policies
Economic justice
Government revenue
Property tax equalization
Tax revenue
Non-tax revenue
Tax law
Tax bracket
Flat tax
Tax threshold
Taxation as theft
Tax shift
Tax cut
Tax advantage
Tax incentive
Tax reform
Tax harmonization
Tax competition
Double taxation
Representation
Medical savings account :
Economics
General Theory
Price effect
Excess burden
Tax incidence
Laffer curve
Optimal tax
Fiscal illusion
Theories
Optimal capital income taxation
Distribution of Tax
Tax rate
Flat
Progressive
Regressive
Proportional :
Collection
Revenue service
Revenue stamp
Tax assessment
Taxable income
Tax lien
Tax refund
Tax shield
Tax residence
Tax preparation
Tax protester
Tax investigation
Tax collector
Tax withholding
Private tax collection :
Noncompliance
Legal tax avoidance
Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS)
Double Irish
Single Malt
CAIA
Dutch Sandwich
Tax credit
Tax deduction
Tax exemption
Taxpayer groups
Tax holiday
Tax inversion
Tax farming
Repatriation tax avoidance
Tax patent
Tax shelter
Illegal tax evasion
Tax amnesty
Black market
Debtors' prison
Tax exile
Smuggling
Tax resistance
Transfer mispricing
Unreported employment
Locations
Tax havens
Corporate havens
Offshore financial centres (OFCs)
Offshore magic circle
Conduit and sink OFCs
Financial centres
Financial Secrecy Index
Major examples
Ireland as a tax haven
Ireland v. Commission
Leprechaun economics
Liechtenstein tax affair
Luxembourg Leaks
Offshore Leaks
Paradise Papers
Panama Papers
Swiss Leaks
United States as a tax haven
Panama as a tax haven :
Types
Direct
Indirect
Per unit
Ad valorem
Aviation
Airport improvement
Landing
Solidarity
Capital gains
Expatriation
Consumption
Departure
Hotel
Sales
Stamp
Television
Tourist
Value-added
Dividend
Environmental tax
Carbon
Eco-tariff
Landfill
Natural resources consumption
Severance
Steering
Stumpage
Excise
Alcohol
Cigarette
Fat
Meat
Sin
Sugary drink
Tobacco
General
Georgist
Gift
Gross receipts
Hypothecated
Income
Inheritance (estate)
Land value
Luxury
Payroll
Pigouvian
Property
Resource rent
Single
Surtax
Turnover
Use
User charge/fee
Congestion
Fuel
Road/GNSS
Toll
Vehicle miles traveled
Corporate profit
Excess profits
Windfall
Negative (income)
Wealth :
International
Financial transaction tax
ATTAC
Currency transaction tax
European Union Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB)
Global minimum corporate tax rate
Robin Hood tax
Tobin tax
Spahn tax
Tax equalization
Tax treaty
Exchange of Information
Permanent establishment
Transfer pricing
European Union FTT
Foreign revenue rule :
Trade
Custom
Duty
Tariff
Import
Export
Tariff war
Free trade
Free-trade zone
Trade agreement
ATA Carnet :
Research
Academic
Mihir A. Desai
Dhammika Dharmapala
James R. Hines Jr.
Ronen Palan
Joel Slemrod
Gabriel Zucman
Advocacy groups
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)
Oxfam (UK)
Tax Foundation (US)
Tax Justice Network (TJN)
Tax Policy Center (US) :
Religious
Church tax
Eight per thousand
Teind
Tithe
Fiscus Judaicus
Leibzoll
Temple tax
Tolerance tax
Jizya
Kharaj
Khums
Nisab
Zakat :
By country
All Countries
List of countries by tax rates
Tax revenue to GDP ratio
Tax rates in Europe
Individual Countries
Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brazil
Bulgaria
BVI
Canada
China
Colombia
Croatia
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Kazakhstan
Lithuania
Malta
Morocco
Namibia
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Pakistan
Palestine
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Russia
South Africa
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tanzania
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay :
Business portal
Money portal :
vte :
   The United States "is effectively the biggest tax haven in the world"
In 2010, the United States implemented the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act; the law required financial firms around the world to report accounts held by US citizens to the Internal Revenue Service. The US on the other hand refused the Common Reporting Standard set up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, alongside Vanuatu and Bahrain.
This means the US receives tax and asset information for American assets and income abroad, but does not share information about what happens in the United States with other countries. In other words, it has become attractive as a tax haven.

## Extent

The Tax Justice Network ranks the US third in terms of the secrecy and scale of its offshore financial industry, behind Switzerland and Hong Kong but ahead of the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg. The United States has been popular as a destination for offshore funds for Chinese investors, said Canadian financial crimes expert Bill Majcher, because investors think it will resist pressure from China. Andrew Penney from Rothschild & Co described the US as "effectively the biggest tax haven in the world" and Trident Trust Co., one of the world's biggest providers of offshore trusts, moved dozens of accounts out of Switzerland and Grand Cayman, and into Sioux Falls, saying: "Cayman was slammed in December, closing things that people were withdrawing ... I was surprised at how many were coming across that were formerly Swiss bank accounts, but they want out of Switzerland."
A 2012 study by various US universities showed that the US has the most lenient regulations for setting up a shell company anywhere in the world outside of Kenya. Tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, Jersey and the Bahamas were far less permissive, researchers found, than states such as Nevada, Delaware, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming and New York. "[Americans] discovered that they really don't need to go to Panama", said James Henry of the Tax Justice Network. For example, a single address in Wilmington (1209 North Orange Street) is listed as the headquarters for at least 285,000 separate businesses due to Delaware's desirable corporate taxes and law. As of 2016, it was estimated that 9 billion dollars of potential taxes were lost over the past decade, due to the Delaware 'loophole'. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have firms registered in North Orange Street, and lawyers, trust companies and financial firms including Rothschild & Co are moving offshore accounts from locations such as Switzerland and the Cayman Islands into the US to take advantage of the country's loose regulations, calling it the "new Switzerland" (see Banking in Switzerland).
Mark Hays of Global Witness said "the US is one of the easiest places to set up so-called anonymous shell companies", and Stefanie Ostfeld from the same organization said that "the US is just as big a secrecy jurisdiction as so many of these Caribbean countries and Panama". More than 1.1 million live legal entities were incorporated in Delaware at the end of 2014. An increasing number – more than 70% – of those were LLC. The Delaware Division of Corporations said in August 2015 that "an LLC entices all types of people since it is easy to operate and oversee", and Delaware is currently one of the few states without sales tax. Delaware does not tax the companies that operate there, nor does it tax their royalty income. However, the LLC is more popular and often less expensive in states such as Wyoming, Nevada and Oregon. Approximately 668,000 anonymous LLCs are registered just in those three states.
Parts of the country serve as havens for others, and for covert governmental actions. In the 1980s the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used Guam as the location for a trust incorporation. The CIA then used Guam as an offshore haven both from taxes and from scrutiny in the course of operating a Hawaiian front company.$^{:334}$
The European Union includes the US Territories of American Samoa, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands in its list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.
In 2024, Wyoming was the state with the most corporate registrations per capita.
On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Global minimum corporate tax rate.

### Offshore tax avoidance
## Pandora Papers, 2021

The October 2021 release of the Pandora Papers revealed details of a number of non-U.S. figures who have used U.S. tax haven services. These include 35 world leaders and over 100 billionaires, celebrities, and business leaders.