A tax haven is a country where taxes are so low that money goes there to sit. Often small, often an island, and always discreet.
The attraction is a combination of low rates and secrecy, which is why the term carries such disapproval, and the countries in question prefer to be called international financial centres. Companies route profits through them legally, which is avoidance rather than evasion, and the difference is the whole of the argument. Successive leaks of documents have made the practice much harder to hide.
1nountax havenA country with very low taxes, used to shelter money from higher rates elsewhere.
“The profits went through a tax haven in the Caribbean.”
Compound of tax + haven.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, Politics & Society
First appears in chapter 2 of A Man Called Ove.
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