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Mauritius Leaks exposes tiny tax haven's role in vast offshore system

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11–20 of 41 posts

Re: Mauritius Leaks exposes tiny tax haven's role in vast offshore system

#11

https://qz.com/1667447/sequoia-capitals-scheme-to-use-maurit... Another link by QZ. It highlights how Sequoia used this to its advantage in India and one of its invested companies is now under investigation for money laundering for P.Chidambaram's (former finance minister) son. Again anecdotal and i know this is frowned in HN, but unofficial estimates put P Chidambaram's family net worth at 20k crore INR (~ 3 billion…

If the Mauritian tax treaty is such a pain for India, then they should just get rid of it. They clearly haven't, so it must be of some value -- thus you can't shame companies for using it to legally sidestep taxes.

It is a pain to India. It is not a pain to the politicians though.

Re: Mauritius Leaks exposes tiny tax haven's role in vast offshore system

#12

https://qz.com/1667447/sequoia-capitals-scheme-to-use-maurit... Another link by QZ. It highlights how Sequoia used this to its advantage in India and one of its invested companies is now under investigation for money laundering for P.Chidambaram's (former finance minister) son. Again anecdotal and i know this is frowned in HN, but unofficial estimates put P Chidambaram's family net worth at 20k crore INR (~ 3 billion…

If the Mauritian tax treaty is such a pain for India, then they should just get rid of it. They clearly haven't, so it must be of some value -- thus you can't shame companies for using it to legally sidestep taxes.

If the world was so simple.

Re: Mauritius Leaks exposes tiny tax haven's role in vast offshore system

#14

https://qz.com/1667447/sequoia-capitals-scheme-to-use-maurit... Another link by QZ. It highlights how Sequoia used this to its advantage in India and one of its invested companies is now under investigation for money laundering for P.Chidambaram's (former finance minister) son. Again anecdotal and i know this is frowned in HN, but unofficial estimates put P Chidambaram's family net worth at 20k crore INR (~ 3 billion…

If the Mauritian tax treaty is such a pain for India, then they should just get rid of it. They clearly haven't, so it must be of some value -- thus you can't shame companies for using it to legally sidestep taxes.

Yeah, because a country is a person, and looks after its own best interest -- not an area, often ruled and exploited by ruthless opportunists the detriment of the population...

Re: Mauritius Leaks exposes tiny tax haven's role in vast offshore system

#15
post #7

Mauritius also has some of the worst surf localism in the world https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyNv69tyXJ4

The problem is that there are too many South Africans crowding up the best surfspots. Also making youtube videos about the spots dont help

Re: Mauritius Leaks exposes tiny tax haven's role in vast offshore system

#16
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the Mauritian tax treaty is such a pain for India, then they should just get rid of it. They clearly haven't, so it must be of some value -- thus you can't shame companies for using it to legally sidestep taxes.

Yeah, because a country is a person, and looks after its own best interest -- not an area, often ruled and exploited by ruthless opportunists the detriment of the population...

By that reasoning, every double taxation treaty that contains some sort of exemption is exploitative.

The Mauritian treaty does not contain any abnormal clauses that are uncommon in intra EU treaties and for example, most US-EU treaties.

Double taxation treaties are a way to incentivise people to invest in a specific country. Generally both countries exempt (or promise to partially exempt) booked income from the other country so that it does not get taxed twice. It does not exempt them from all taxation whatsoever.

But an example: if as a UK resident you invest in the US and book a capital gain on a shareholding, you won't pay US capital gains tax. That will be exempt. But you will pay capital gains tax in the UK.

Re: Mauritius Leaks exposes tiny tax haven's role in vast offshore system

#17
post #7

Mauritius also has some of the worst surf localism in the world https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyNv69tyXJ4

The problem is that there are too many South Africans crowding up the best surfspots. Also making youtube videos about the spots dont help

Beating up a teen is not a solution to this "problem"

Re: Mauritius Leaks exposes tiny tax haven's role in vast offshore system

#18

https://qz.com/1667447/sequoia-capitals-scheme-to-use-maurit... Another link by QZ. It highlights how Sequoia used this to its advantage in India and one of its invested companies is now under investigation for money laundering for P.Chidambaram's (former finance minister) son. Again anecdotal and i know this is frowned in HN, but unofficial estimates put P Chidambaram's family net worth at 20k crore INR (~ 3 billion…

> unofficial estimates put P Chidambaram's family net worth at 20k crore INR (~ 3 billion $).

Got a source for that?

Re: Mauritius Leaks exposes tiny tax haven's role in vast offshore system

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the Mauritian tax treaty is such a pain for India, then they should just get rid of it. They clearly haven't, so it must be of some value -- thus you can't shame companies for using it to legally sidestep taxes.

It is a pain to India. It is not a pain to the politicians though.

> It is a pain to India

Do we have evidence of this? A lot of investment into India would not occur without a stable legal and tax environment on which to stage it. Traditionally, those have been Singapore and Mauritius.

Re: Mauritius Leaks exposes tiny tax haven's role in vast offshore system

#20
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, because a country is a person, and looks after its own best interest -- not an area, often ruled and exploited by ruthless opportunists the detriment of the population...

By that reasoning, every double taxation treaty that contains some sort of exemption is exploitative. The Mauritian treaty does not contain any abnormal clauses that are uncommon in intra EU treaties and for example, most US-EU treaties. Double taxation treaties are a way to incentivise people to invest in a specific country. Generally both countries exempt (or promise to partially exempt) booked income from the othe…

>By that reasoning, every double taxation treaty that contains some sort of exemption is exploitative.

If they are treaties with tax havens, places used purposefully for those reasons, then yes, they are.

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