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A new investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists into leaked documents shows that some 1,200 Belgians have set up a financial construction in tax havens. Among the Belgians, ‘a prince’, ‘a crime author’ and a ‘Brussels rapper’ figure on the list. They are already in good company with, among others, Shakira and Tony Blair and many other foreign greats who also own a so-called mailbox company, as the ‘Pandora papers’ now demonstrate.
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Dirk Coosemans
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Despite all the measures to combat constructions in tax havens, Belgians continue to use them. This is evident from the ‘Pandora Papers’, a new international study by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Knack, De Tijd and Le Soir contributed to this for our country.
The ‘Pandora Papers’ are 11.9 million leaked documents from 14 law firms from those countries that specialize in setting up such tax-avoiding mailbox companies, including The Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands.
The documents are said to contain about 29,000 offshore structures and therefore as many ‘founders’ of such structures. So 1200 Belgians among them. An earlier study in 2016 was called ‘The Panama Papers’, and that list of 1 office also included 732 – mostly other – Belgians.
16 year old girl on list
What is the profile of those 1217 Belgians from the Pandora Papers? The most diverse profiles emerge: a crime writer, a surgeon, a professor, a mental coach, the owner of an investment guide, a Brussels rapper, a former first-class football player, a meat fraudster, a radio host, the manager of a gambling company, a condemned hash dealer to even a young bitcoin millionaire. Many IT specialists, such as web hosts or developers of business software or web shop services, also seem to generate income in tax havens. But also French and Dutch Belgians who emigrated here and a few noble families from our country: barons and baronesses, counts and countesses, even a prince. The youngest and the oldest ‘owner’ are also known: It concerns a 16-year-old girl from Brussels and a 90-year-old Antwerp woman with a post box construction in the Bahamas. 22 lawyers who use an address on Avenue Louise in Brussels are also included in the leaked documents. Usually these lawyers do not own any offshore company, but they were given the power of attorney to act on behalf of someone such a company.
The case will have a lot of impact in the coming days because the 600 journalists of the Consortium promise to announce names, including the Belgian ones. Several foreign heads of state and government have already been named. These include the King of Jordan, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, but also British ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair, who evaded stamp duties on his new London mansion, and the Dutch Finance Minister Wobke Hoekstra (CDA). Celebrities Shakira, Elton John, Claudia Schiffer and Beattle drummer Ringo Star are also involved with (some of their assets) in offshore constructions.
Such constructions are not prohibited per se. Provided that you declare them to the tax authorities, that you manage them on the spot and that you do not pump black or criminal money into them. But if you meet all those conditions, they are of course no longer financially interesting. When the Panama Papers came out, the Belgian tax authorities managed to recover millions. This seems to be happening now.
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