Americans unable to hide wealth in Singapore anymore

Singapore is home to one of the world’s largest concentration of billionaires and it is forecast to overtake Switzerland as the largest wealth management center globally.

Now, in an effort to control American citizen tax invasion, Singapore and the US have signed a deal that will require financial firms to share data about American account-holders to the relevant tax authorities.

The deal terms are not thoroughly stated yet but are to be finalized by the end of the current year.

The US citizens targeted by this deal are those who have over $50,000 in their personal accounts.

Firms such as banks, investment funds and insurers that do not comply with new regulations will face a 30% withholding tax on their US investment income. This could lead to further sanctions such as being frozen out of US capital markets.

The tax invasion deal ensued several scandals related to the Swiss banks secrecy policies which permitted more than 22,000 Americans hide their wealth and thus evade taxes.

Now Americans turn to the Asian banking systems. The Boston Consulting Group reported that there were $1.2tn in offshore wealth assets held in Singapore and Hong Kong in 2012.

60 other tax evasion deals have been signed with Indonesia, Peru and Kuwait most recently, among other countries.