Enchanted offshore

Russian rich people hide their capital in Cyprus because they are afraid of each other

In offshore-“Territories with a special tax regime for non-resident companies”-there is actually nothing bad. Moreover, the fact that some person keeps his funds in offshore is in itself nothing about the legal status of these funds.

In this sense, offshore is similar to a “convenient flag” for the trading fleet. No one is embarrassed that thousands of ships (half of the world tonnage) go along the sea under the so -called "comfortable flags" of countries like Panama, Liberia or the Marshall Islands. Nothing personal, it's just a business. The smaller and harmless the country under which your containers walk under the flag of, the less problems you will have in the ports of countries that consider themselves big and great. I paid the money - and no policy. This is just a decrease in risks and costs.

If it is more profitable to register a ship where there is less bureaucracy and easier to conduct business, then why not?

After all, the offshore was also originally invented to accelerate the business. There are a lot of situations in which large transactions-especially in finances-fall under some restrictions on local legislation. Of course, you can rewrite the law, but in countries where parliament is a place for discussions, lawmaking is a long business. It is easier to conduct an operation in the jurisdiction of some remote territory than to negotiate with the authorities. If there are too many such situations - well, this will become an occasion to think about the adjustment of laws. Moreover, everything understands everything-do not imagine that offshore accounts of corporations and banks are some special secret for financial intelligence. To whom it is supposed - he knows.

The story with offshore accounts of various athletes, coaches, actresses and pop stars is a slightly different story. Such accounts appear when the stars do not want to pay high taxes from their supergonorary, but again, it is not possible to agree with the authorities “in a good way”. Star status is wonderful, but it is not yet a reason to introduce a preferential tax regime for an athlete or rapper. Again, the offshore operations of such people are not a big secret, but no one is particularly chasing them. Stars will come across offshore schemes - well, you will have to pay taxes and fines “at the place of permanent registration”.

Even politicians of democratic countries use offshores, but for somewhat other reasons - in Europe it is believed that the deputy or the minister is not supposed to be too rich. It is clear that these people are not in poverty, but the state of some “Minister of Infrastructure” of the European country can only mock the Russian chief of some district sewage system. But the European Minister may have some extra money, and he may well try to hide it in offshore. But if it comes out, with a political career you can tie. Moreover, it is precisely the “party comrades” will be asked “to the exit” of such a loser.

But the “offshore stories” of the owners of countries, where the political field was turned into a parade ground for marching and parades, speak of something completely different. No, it is not a matter of corruption. There are things and worse in the economy.

By the way, one cannot say that “offshore money” is lost for the Russian economy. Its main investors (and direct investment “in Russia” has not gone anywhere), according to a strange coincidence, come from offshores - from Cyprus and other “islands”. Moreover, the volumes of these investments are comparable to the amount of funds withdrawn to offshore. Our “foreign investment” is for the most part Russian money, only wrapped in a “convenient flag”. The old Russian truth is confirmed "Form of ownership - nothing, control over financial flows - everything."

Offshore schemes with “Russian names” are needed to depersonate the real beneficiaries of the income of Russian companies. As Russian economist Sergei Zhuravlev wrote, “in the case of infrastructure sectors and natural monopolies controlled by the state, these schemes (slightly) are masking the process of pumping income from state -owned companies to their managers and their families.”

And this is a much more serious problem than corruption, theft and tax evasion. Our owners of the country go to offshore not because they want to save on taxes. They pay taxes as they agree. And not because the laws interfere with them. They write them themselves.

They go to offshore because they are afraid of each other and do not believe each other.

In the series “The meeting place cannot be changed”, Sharapov shouted to Gorbatata: “For me! In it, all my hope, you will not cut me later-you will not give me money from my savings book! ” So for our bosses-offshore works like a savings bank-if something happened to you, money will not be given to friends from there ... Therefore, by the way, no internal offshores in the Russian Federation are popular in the Russian Federation.

The owners of life for 30 years have not come up with other guarantees mechanisms for “as if their own” assets. They have a weak hope for their own state. More precisely, no. It is suitable in order to vigilantly protect and steadfastly defend these assets from outsider and ordinary citizens of the country. But it is not at all suitable to protect these assets from other "representatives of the elites."

Large people have been “building capitalism” for 30 years in Russia, but they cannot agree among themselves regarding the property that they belong to them.

No one believes that the abbreviations in the Rosreestr, all these LSDU3 and YFYAU9 instead of names and surnames, are a guarantee of someone else's property. Perhaps in some bunker deeply hidden in the safe, like Koshcheeva, the “final piece of paper”, which is accurately recorded, to whom, why, why belongs in modern Russia. But who saw this piece of paper? And who is writing it now?

The necessity of “playing offshores” for billionaires and officials from the Russian Federation is evidence that the evil and tenacious state that they built cannot provide, in general, an elementary thing - the transfer of property on transparent grounds. If the elites were sure of the inviolability of their rights to what they own, then they would not need offshore. And since they themselves are not sure of this, why should everyone else consider them legitimate owners of this property?

The problem of the current “offshorization” is not that the “money” is “leaving” from Russia, but that the “public agreement” concluded in Russia in the early 1990s has been exhausted. The contract between people and the authorities was the kind of: we are “socialist property” to you, you are the full shelves in stores. It was the total deficiency that was a visible and obvious symbol of the collapse of developed socialism. And as soon as the shops are filled, so "life has become better and more fun."

However, a generation has grown, which is not surprised by the full shelves, and now it asks: “Where is the money?”

But socialist property was in the hands of a small layer of former Soviet people “do not understand how”. And, moreover, “do not understand how” this property is guaranteed. Even now, 30 years after the start of reforms, our bosses, all as one “former Soviet people” cannot clearly explain to another “former Soviet people”, why they, and not some other citizens occupy leading posts, while at the same time the owners of plants-plants. If they could explain, they would not need either eternal power or offshore schemes. However, for this, Russian elites first need to agree among themselves about how they got rich and became the owners of the country.

You will have to explain at some point. And the best option for such an explanation could be the conclusion of some new public agreement. For example, the legitimization of property in exchange for a real increase in the standard of living of people, instead of the current existence "from a one -time payment to a one -time payment." So far, the new agreement is not concluded - we will not see either development or growth.

For many representatives of the elites offshore, this is already a guarantee of not even property, but life. The time when the new agreement with the country is still possible is leaving. But so far all hope is only for offshore.