EU and other nations grappling with how to counter offshore tax avoidance

London

THE Paradise Papers are once again causing governments to grapple with ways to counter offshore tax avoidance.

In doing so, nations also need to combat another problem, notably the leaking and publication of confidential banking and legal information. This significant aspect has not been covered adequately by the newspapers and the investigative journalist consortium that have gained access to the papers.

To recap, the leak known as the Paradise Papers covers corporate and individual data from offshore services firms such as Appleby and from 19 corporate registries in offshore centres. The leaks were obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, shared with the "International Consortium of…