companies hired by wealthy clients to create offshore structures and trusts in taxe havens such as panama dubai monaco switzerland and the cayman islands -- a global offshore economy that enables some of the worlde s richest people to hide their wealth and in some cases pay little or no taxe quick guide -- the pandora papers are the largest trove of leaked data exposing taxe haven secrecy in history they provide a rare window into the hidden -- their clients are typically seeking to discreetly set up companies or trusts in lightly regulated taxe havens such as the british virgin islands bvi panama the cook islands and the us state of south -- usually for reasons of taxe secrecy or regulation offshore jurisdictions tend to have no income or corporation taxe which makes them potentially attractive to wealthy individuals and companies who done want to pay taxe in their home countries although morally questionable this kind of taxe avoidance can legal offshore jurisdictions also tend to highly secretive and publish little or no information about the companies or trusts incorporated there this can make them useful to criminals such as taxe evaders or money launderers who need to hide money from taxe or law enforcement authorities it is also true that people in corrupt or unstable countries may use offshore -- and in some cases people may have legitimate reasons such as security for doing so but the secrecy offered by taxe havens has at times proven attractive to taxe evaders fraudsters and money launderers some of whom are exposed in the files avoid paying taxe elsewhere a legal activity estimated to cost governments billions in lost revenues -- leaked files reveals that tony and cherie blair saved £ in property taxe when they purchased a london building partially owned by the family of a prominent bahraini minister -- company while the move was not illegal and there is no evidence the blairs proactively sought to avoid property taxe the deal highlights a loophole that has enabled wealthy property owners not to pay a taxe that is commonplace for ordinary britons -- all exist to serve their ultrarich clients many are foreignborn tycoons who enjoy “nondomicile” status which means they pay no taxe on their overseas assets -- to bring transparency to the global financial system the us emerges from the leak as a leading taxe haven the files suggest the state of south dakota in particular is sheltering billions of dollars in