Maya Forstater

He seems to equate 'layers' of holding companies, use of intermediaries etc.. with the money laundering concept of layering (converting dirty money into assets which look clean). (this is a bad idea to confuse/conflate)

@arachnys - thoughts?

Interesting discussion (probably best if I respond w/ my personal account). @MForstater I enjoyed your article though I disagree with some of the conclusions you draw. We're each tackling the same limitations and misconceptions of the debate...

In your tweet you demonstrably conflate 'layering' with 'laundering'. The use of offshore holding companies, used in 'layers' is a legal practice, and does not illustrate wrongdoing, as I make clear.

However, these structures are demonstrably used to hide real ownership in a proportion of cases, and as such are a technique in the employ of money launderers. My argument is for the use of public registers in order to increase visibility to eliminate business secrecy.

I recognize (as you do in your article) that the outraged argument over the use of offshore vehicles as tax evasion vehicles is unhelpful, because it covers but one segment of the problem. However, your identification of ryg zones is a helpful framework for discussion.

I contest that not only many of the purposes of the yellow zone but also the green zone are socially unhelpful, and the privacy argument is usefully employed by tax lawyers but is a straw man - as the registers can easily be configured to protect privacy in the cases mentioned.