Offshore bank

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed out Washington's plans to make fighting corruption a key national security task, commenting on the publication of the Pandora Papers - a massive leak of millions of documents about offshore bank accounts of world's lead politicians and celebrities.

European Union taxpayers held assets worth at least $1.6 trillion offshore in 2016, equal to nearly 10 percent of the bloc's output, the European Commission said on Friday, estimating tax revenue losses at around $50 billion a year.

At least a billion dollars a year are believed to be pouring into offshore accounts of Russian shell companies linked to just one semi-legal but blossoming industry: online gambling.

Monarchs and presidents, politicians, big companies, world stars from sports and show business are hiding big portion of their wealth in offshore accounts. This revealed a large-scale journalistic investigation with documents from 2 intermediary firms and registers of 19 tax havens. The investigation was conducted by world media from the consortium of investigative journalists.

Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis Thursday expressed irritation at a decision by the Council of State deeming successive extensions to the statue of limitations for tax fraud unconstitutional.

Greek banks and the state are in the process of creating a national register for offshore company owners, in compliance with a European Union directive to that effect.

A Bulgarian MP has proposed to announce a tax amnesty scheme for the country's nationals holding funds in bank accounts in offshore jurisdictions following revelations in Panama Papers leaks.

Parliament adopted its stance on a deal with Switzerland to make it harder for EU citizens to hide cash from the tax man in Swiss bank accounts, in a vote on Tuesday. Under the deal, the EU and Switzerland will automatically exchange information on the bank accounts of each other’s residents, starting in 2018.

By Tasos Telloglou

The agreement between Greece and the United States Internal Revenue Service, providing for the mutual exchange of data regarding bank deposits, is in its final stretch.

The European Union has agreed rules to stamp out tax evasion and stop dirty money from criminal gangs or terrorism finance being channeled through anonymous companies.

EU states and the European Parliament struck the agreement on late Dec. 16 to update the bloc's anti-money laundering rules, a statement from parliament's economic affairs committee said on Dec. 17.