European banks still booking profits in tax havens, says report

Profits booked by banks in tax havens work out at around 238,000 per employee, compared with 65,000 euros in non-tax havens, the report said

Top banks in Europe continue to use tax havens to book chunks of profits, a trend that has changed little since 2014 despite country-by-country disclosures becoming mandatory, the EU Tax Observatory said in a report on Monday.

The independent research body, co-financed by the European Union, said disclosures from 36 major European banks showed they booked a total of €20 billion ($23.77 billion) or about 14 per cent of total profits, in tax havens, even though few were employed there.

According to The Gu­ardi­an, banks said to enjoy a particularly low effective tax rate on their profits, of less than 15 per