Following the various terrorist atrocities across the world in recent years, and partially as a result the on-going global battle against money laundering and drug trafficking, many of the higher taxation countries.

- such as the US and UK - have begun restricting and eliminating the attractions of tax havens for their citizens.

The ideas behind this move are simple to understand.

As a result of the targeted crack down on tax havens and the benefits and attractions they can offer the citizens of various high taxation countries, many former colonies and countries closely affiliated with the UK and US for example, are being forced to refuse entry and even to eliminate tax haven benefits altogether. Particularly affected are citizens of the United States. 

Why? 

Because the US is the world’s superpower and exacts such strong power and control over much of the world today and can inflict trade embargos, certain boycotts and the restriction of any international aid to countries it feels are illegally offering tax haven benefits to its citizens.

But Belize is Different. 

In 1991 Belize began establishing itself as an offshore centre of note and introduced a series of offshore legislation designed to establish itself as one of the most attractive tax havens globally. It learned from the successes and mistakes of other tax havens around the world and designed its legislation carefully so that it would become THE most attractive tax haven globally. It began by allowing the creation of offshore corporations and it progressed to passing attractive trust law legislation which was developed upon and expanded throughout the 1990s.

Belize agreed to sign an agreement but only agreed to cooperate with the information exchange policy where it would combat the likes of drug trafficking and international terrorism. Belize was not willing to disclose its banking information, nor was it willing to accept the need for disclosure of fiscal information where tax evasion was suspected for example. 

This lack of complete cooperation was met with anger and hostility by the US and they punished Belize by placing it alongside the likes of Columbia on a list of countries unwilling to assist in the global battle against international drug trade and money laundering. The seriousness of America’s action must be stressed - Belize simply had to take positive action to remove itself from this list otherwise it would face the restriction of foreign aid, world political isolation etc and it would be crippled economically.

And it remained true to its original convictions and continued to refuse to give in to the information exchanged demands of the US. Belize instead brought in further highly attractive offshore legislation to attract international banks to relocate to Belize! 

At the same time it also introduced new privacy laws for the banks and it also included certain anti money laundering provisions such as America’s very own “know your client” rule.

This meant that Belize fell in step with US home banking policies! 

Therefore America was no longer able to say that Belize was refusing to assist with the international prevention of money laundering and it had to remove Belize from its hit list!