Some things about the Panama Papers that Singaporeans need to know.

[Sammyboy RSS Feed]

An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

Please don't hold your breath as I am sure nothing is going to come of it. The firm that was supposedly hacked provides corporate services - people setting up company, setting trusts etc.

Singapore has one of the lowest tax rates so there is very little motivation. Singapore's status as a major financial centre did not just fall from the sky. The Government made it attractive to set up companies and to foreigners to place deposits here. ACU deposits placed by non-residents for instance do not attract tax.

In most cases if you are 18 years of age, have a passport, you can pop into any of the offshore banks across the World and setup a savings account and also get a local PO Box there to get mail. You can then access your account electronically from the comfort of your HDB flat. You also can get a credit card against your deposit issued by the offshore bank and shop with it internationally. You do not need a firm like Mossack Fonseca to setup anything for you. Corrupt ones and those hiding their wealth from their spouses and family only have to fly over and get a savings account.

Many of the names in the partial list for Singapore are Singapore law firms and Singapore lawyers who are expected to help clients setup offshore companies as Singapore is a major financial centre. These would be legitimate setups to take advantage of legal tax structure based on jurisdiction. For example a US firm would setup an offshore subsidiary in Mauritius to then provide loans and funding to it's Singapore Operations. SIA did that in Mauritius to pay a cohort of foreign pilots and not govern by local terms.

Generally Singapore is known for its tight secrecy and well known for hiding things. We also have the infamous numbered account passed by Parliament. No need to go anywhere. The late Khoo Teck Puat held nearly all the shares in his SGX listed companies thru various bank nominees in Singapore and no one had a clue. There was practically no free float in his companies to allow fair share trading an it is against the law. It only came apart when he died. His daughters who knew about it were spared and in return made it easy for Temasek and Ho Ching to take over Standard Chartered Bank from the Khoo family.

An analogy would an American who wants to buy a sawn shot-gun does not need to leave his country to get one.

It does not mean that Offshore companies are not used for nefarious activities by Singaporeans, it just that Singaporeans have less of need compared to an American, European or Australian where the tax rates are very high.

You would be better offer worrying about the haze.


Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com.