The Panama Papers and tax avoidance: analysis of a phenomenon that upset the economic vision of the world

Abstract

The spring of 2016 changed the life of many people. And it also changed the way people saw their leaders. The world suddenly discovered how a tiny island in the ocean can be home of thousands and thousands of companies founded by people living on the other side of the planet. More than two terabytes of data, containing 11.5 million documents were revealed to the public, with information about 128 politicians and public officials around the world, alongside with their companies, or participations in companies, with no more than a registered address somewhere in the world. This work tries to analyse this scandal and the phenomenon of tax evasion, what causes and defines it, and how different countries reacted to the information leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Following these events, the Financial Action Task Force was created, here are further explored its roots and its actions, and the results obtained, with a focus on the United Kingdom, a country particularly important in this scandal. As it will be debated, it has not been easy to eradicate such behaviour, and a lot of work still should be done to achieve this goal.