A/HRC/31/61 that many of the world’s most important secrecy jurisdictions are developed countries, which have historically been overlooked in their role in facilitating tax evasion.4 10. While not all wealth held offshore may be hidden from national tax authorities, a significant amount is believed not to be declared appropriately. Given the nature of the secrecy involved, estimating how much private wealth is hidden in tax havens is difficult and must be done indirectly. Estimates vary greatly, but in all the figures are substantial. One report estimates that $7.6 trillion (8 per cent of global financial household wealth) was held in tax havens at the end of 2013 — with an estimated 80 per cent of it unrecorded.5 Another estimates the value of global private wealth held offshore in 2013 to be $8.9 trillion,6 while yet another estimates that, at the end of 2010, unrecorded private wealth invested offshore was as much as $21 trillion to $32 trillion (10-15 per cent of global financial wealth). A more recent estimate is even higher: $24 trillion to $36 trillion as of 2015.7 Those estimates provide only lower bound figures, since they include only financial wealth and disregard real assets, such as real estate, art, jewellery and gold, among others. 11. There is also consensus that the amount of private wealth held offshore is growing. It has been estimated that global offshore wealth increased by 28 per cent from end-2008 to end-2013,8 and that unrecorded offshore private wealth grew at an average rate of 16 per cent a year from 2004 to 2014.9 This trend is especially strong in developing countries. 12. Developed and developing countries suffer as a result, but developing countries are particularly hard hit. It has been estimated that the relative amount of wealth from developing countries held abroad is much greater than for developed countries, ranging from 20-30 per cent in many African and Latin American countries. 10 Another study provides similar figures: 26 per cent for Latin America and 33 per cent for the Middle East and Africa.11 Moreover, developing countries tend to have much smaller tax revenues per capita than developed countries, further magnifying the impact of these losses for developing countries. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has calculated that the tax gap for developing countries is $66 billion to $84 billion per year — about two thirds of total official development assistance (ODA). 12 These revenues become lost from the erosion of the tax base, thus preventing Governments, particularly in developing countries, from establishing progressive tax systems. 13. Another crucial fact to note is the greatly unequal ownership of offshore wealth. It has been estimated that 85 to 90 per cent of wealth belongs to fewer than 10 million people — just 0.014 per cent of the world’s population —, and at least a third of it belongs to the world’s top 100,000 families, each with a net worth of at least $30 million.13 Another study has found that, while offshore assets are rising, the number of clients is falling, so the 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 See, for example, the Tax Justice Network Financial Secrecy Index, available from www.financialsecrecyindex.com/. See G. Zucman, “Taxing across borders: tracking personal wealth and corporate profits”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 121-148. See Boston Consulting Group, “Global wealth 2014: riding a wave of growth” (2014). See J. Henry, “The price of offshore revisited”, Tax Justice Network (2012); and “Let’s tax anonymous wealth!”, Global Tax Fairness, Ed. T. Pogge and K. Mehta (Oxford University Press, Oxford, forthcoming). See Zucman, “Taxing across borders” (footnote 6). See Henry, “Let’s tax anonymous wealth!” (footnote 8). See Zucman, “Taxing across borders” (footnote 6). See Boston Consulting Group, “Global wealth 2013: maintaining momentum in a complex world”, (2013). See Trade and Development Report, (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.14.II.D.4) p.175. See Henry, “Let’s tax anonymous wealth!” (footnote 8). 5