Australian billionaires buying exclusive condominiums. Germans moving money from Swiss accounts. Secretive banking laws. The premier Asian wealth management center. Low tax rates.
As Singapore revels in its reputation as an open economy with one of the world’s highest concentrations of millionaires, the tiny city-state of 5.3 million people is also facing accusations in the German media and from lobby groups of being a magnet for tax evaders — an image it is vehemently seeking to change.
Amid German concerns that its wealthy citizens are moving funds from Switzerland before a new German-Swiss tax treaty takes effect next year, Singapore and Germany said Sunday they had agreed to bolster their double-taxation agreement with internationally agreed standards on information sharing.
“Banking secrecy will not constitute an obstacle to exchanging information,” said the joint statement, which came at the end of the weekend visit to Singapore by the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble.
Media reports have put the amount of German money moving to Singapore in the double-digit billions.
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