British+Overseas+Territories

=British overseas territories=

British overseas territories are fourteen possessions spread world wide under British sovereignty. They are not constitutionally part of United Kingdom, but each has an own constitution and relationship with UK.

Most of the British overseas economies are small island economies and their economy is based on providing financial services for international businesses. OECD's list of tax havens includes many of the British overseas territories. For example Caribbean is the fifth largest financial center in the world.

British overseas territories are often confused with the British crown dependencies, for example Channel Island or the Isle of man which are known tax havens.

List of British overseas territories
Anguilla

Bermuda

British Antarctic territory

British Indian Ocean territory

British Virgin Islands

Akrotiri and Dhekelia on Cyprus

Falkland Islands

Gibraltar

Montserrat

Piticairn Islands

Saint Helena (and it's dependencies)

South Georgia

South Sandwich Islands

Turks and Calcos Islands

History
The British overseas territories origin from the colonial period. Most of the British colonies gained independency but some smaller and more dependent ones stayed under British sovereignty. British overseas territories have their own governments but foreign affairs are handled by British government. The overseas territories get financial aid from the British government.

British overseas territories as tax havens
Tax haven is determined by few factors:


 * no tax or nominal tax on income
 * no effective exchange of information
 * lack of transparency

OECD's list of tax havens includes most of the British overseas territories.

List of tax havens by OECD, 2000
Towards global tax co-operation. Report to the 200 ministerial council meeting and recommendations by the committee on fiscl affairs. Progress in Identifying and Eliminating Harmful Tax Practices. OECD. http://www.oecd.org/tax/transparency/44430257.pdf
 * Andorra
 * Anguilla
 * Antigua and Barbuda
 * Aruba
 * Bahamas
 * Bahrain
 * Barbados
 * Belize
 * British Virgin Islands
 * Cook Islands
 * Dominica
 * Gibraltar
 * Grenada
 * Guernsey/Sark/Alderney
 * Isle of Man
 * Jersey
 * Liberia
 * Liechtenstein
 * Maldives
 * Marshall Islands
 * Monaco
 * Montserrat
 * Nauru
 * Netherlands
 * Antilles
 * Niue
 * Panama
 * Samoa
 * Seychelles
 * St. Christopher
 * (St. Kitts) and Nevis
 * St. Lucia
 * St. Vincent and the Grenadines
 * Tonga
 * Turks and Caicos
 * US Virgin Islands
 * Vanuatu

In their book Ronen Palan, Richard Murphy and Christian Chavagneux suggest that the Britain's government has had great influence in making the overseas territories tax havens. Also in their research Mark Hampton and John Christensen suggest that British governments have encouraged overseas territories to establish themselves as tax havens to reduce their dependence on British government's financial aid