The tax havens fight back

Barack Obama has made clamping down on tax havens one of his key talking points. It is easy to see why he has taken this approach which enables him to sound both populist and patriotic. On the stump, Obama liked to joke that a building in the Cayman Islands that was the registered home of 12,000 plus US companies was “either the biggest building in the world or the biggest tax scam on record.” But the Cayman Islands is dinging back, a press release has just dropped in my inbox from them pointing out that 1209 North Orange Street in Wilmington Delaware, Joe Biden’s home state, houses 217,000 companies.

Obviously, arguing about the numbers of companies in various buildings is hardly having a serious debate about tax havens and company law. But the battle between these places and large states is going to become increasingly fraught as large state desperately try to find ways to increase state revenue.