Tax Havens
About 12 percent of outbound German FDI affiliates are located in tax havens according to the list in
Hines (2010). However, the term tax haven lacks a universal definition. While most tax‐haven lists
agree that the Cayman Islands is a tax haven, other countries, such as Ireland, appear only in selected
lists. See Hebous (2014) for an overview.
What determines the demand for tax haven locations? Hebous and Lipatov (2014) find that firms
that are present in high tax countries or highly corrupt countries are more likely to own an affiliate in
a tax haven. Secrecy is a distinctive characteristic that distinguishes a tax haven from simply being a
low (or zero) tax country. Intuitively, concealment services are very relevant for personal tax evasion
by the wealthy, but it is not completely clear why locating a member of a corporate group in a tax
haven should be influenced by secrecy provision unless the motive is illegal, e.g., bribery related
activities and obscure ownership structure for tax evasion purposes.
Since 2008, in its effort to counter offshore tax evasion, Germany has signed a number of bilateral
Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) with jurisdictions such as Bermuda, Cayman Islands,
Jersey, Liechtenstein, and Monaco. Braun and Weichenrieder (2014) suggest that the formation of
TIEAs had detrimental effects on the use of the respective jurisdictions by German multinationals
when compared to other tax haven countries.