Malta's international tax evasion problem dwarfs EU average

Malta loses 2.39 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to international tax evasion, a document released by the European Commission has revealed.  The rate is the highest in Europe by a wide margin, with the country coming in second on the list, Cyprus, losing only 0.72 per cent of its GDP to the international evasion of tax.  Released as part of the European Commission’s ‘Taxation Papers’ series, the document sheds light on several issues, including the extensive offshore wealth owned by the Maltese and their inclination towards stowing their assets overseas. According to data in the report, Malta's revenue loss to international tax evasion in 2016 amounted to €230 million. This amounted to 0.5 per cent of the EU-28 share.  "In 2016, our most recent year, countries with the largest ratios of level of revenue lost to tax evasion to GDP were Malta (2.39 per cent), Cyprus (0.72 per cent) and Latvia (0.68 per cent)," the Commission's report reads.  [attach id=780141 size="large" align="left" type="image"][/attach] Malta was also found to have had the highest average of revenue loss estimates over the period between 2004 and 2016, with 2.34 per cent of GDP lost to...