The amount of untaxed wealth hidden in offshore tax havens by the world’s richest 0.1% exceeds the collective assets of the poorest 4.1 billion people on Earth, an analysis by Oxfam shows.
The report released on Thursday highlights that a decade after the Panama Papers leak, the global elite continue to utilise a complex international financial system to move immense fortunes beyond the reach of public scrutiny and taxation.
Speaking to Euronews, Christian Hallum, the tax lead at Oxfam, stated that the ultra-rich are still sequestering “oceans of wealth” and warned that this is not merely a matter of clever accounting, but one of “power and impunity”.
According to the UK-based global confederation of over 20 independent NGOs, approximately $3.55 trillion (€3.08tn) in private wealth remained untaxed and unreported in offshore accounts.
This sum is nearly equivalent to the entire economy of the UK and is more than double the combined GDP of the world’s 44 least-developed countries.
The concentration of these hidden assets is particularly stark, as the top 0.1% hold roughly 80% of all untaxed offshore funds, representing around $2.84 trillion (€2.47tn).
Within this group, a tiny fraction of the top 0.01% accounts for $1.77 trillion (€1.53tn).
Hallum explained to Euronews that the business model of tax havens remains robust because “ultra-rich individuals have the means to hire wealth managers and accountants to come up with ever-more fanciful ideas for how to evade taxes”.
While total offshore financial wealth reached an estimated $13.25 trillion (€11.51tn) in 2023, representing 12.48% of global GDP, the untaxed portion is estimated to have stabilised at approximately 3.2% since then.
Oxfam is now urging the UK government and other G7 leaders to introduce permanent and progressive wealth taxes on the ultra-rich to reclaim these lost revenues.
The organisation argues that such funds are critical for addressing global poverty, supporting the transition to a green economy and strengthening crumbling public infrastructure.
Euronews asked Hallum if a wealth tax is truly the solution for this problem considering that the ultra-rich specifically use offshore services to avoid taxes all together.
The tax lead at Oxfam answered that “a wealth tax does not solve the offshore problem, but when the richest 0.1% own somewhere around 80% of all untaxed wealth offshore we believe that our losses to tax havens cannot be separated from the issue of extreme inequality”.
“If we really want to get serious about stopping this business model we have to increase financial transparency, but we also have to start addressing the extreme inequality that is driving demand for the services that tax havens offer. That is why we need a wealth tax on the ultra-rich,” Hallum concluded.
Without structural reform to close remaining loopholes and a truly inclusive global cooperation strategy, advocates warn that the offshore system will continue to function as a safety valve for the world’s most affluent at the expense of the majority of people.
The push for a global tax framework
A significant hurdle in the fight against tax evasion stems from the uneven implementation of the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) system.
Although 126 jurisdictions have signed up to the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) as of last year, including major hubs like Singapore and the British Virgin Islands, many countries in the Global South remain excluded.
Hallum told Euronews that the requirement for “reciprocity” is a major barrier for developing nations, as they must build complex systems to identify beneficial owners and transfer data to other countries before they can receive information about their own citizens’ offshore holdings.
“Developing the mechanisms needed to transfer that information from financial institutions to the proper authorities is a very demanding task for even the most financially advanced countries, and for many developing countries it represents a task that is beyond their reach,” the expert explained.
Hallum also cited the example of Ghana, which signed the CRS in 2014 but only started receiving information in 2022 after spending an estimated $1 million (€862,800) to build the necessary capacity.
This technical and financial burden often prevents cash-strapped administrations from accessing vital data that could help them reclaim lost tax revenue.
The persistent scale of offshore evasion has accelerated a shift in global tax governance.
In November 2024, United Nations member states approved the terms of reference for a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation.
Formal negotiations began in early 2025 and are expected to continue through 2027, with the aim of creating a more inclusive system than the current OECD-led framework.
Hallum noted that many governments in the Global South have been more vocal about increasing transparency than their peers in the Global North, partly because the wealth stashed offshore tends to flow toward the richest nations.
In addition to a wealth tax, Hallum explained that Oxfam is calling for a global asset registry to map beneficial ownership across jurisdictions and the opening of public registers to “pierce shell companies and trusts” that hide real estate and other assets.
Hallum told Euronews that these measures, combined with increased investment in tax administrations, would build the “informational infrastructure” necessary to make tax evasion structurally harder and ensure that the ultra-rich contribute fairly to the societies in which they operate.
The European figures
While the Oxfam analysis focuses on global figures, the Atlas of the Offshore World provides a different look on total offshore wealth, not just untaxed funds, and allows for a view of the European context.
This initiative by the EU Tax Observatory and the Norwegian Centre for Tax Research is compiled using data from Gabriel Zucman and other economists.
Estimates suggest that offshore wealth remains high across the continent, with Greece holding the highest amount relative to its economy among EU members, at around 80% of its GDP.
Additionally, Greece loses 47% of its corporate tax revenue, the highest in Europe, followed by Germany at 29% and Estonia at 24%.
France and the UK round out the top 5 both losing an estimated 16%.
The bulk of the Greek assets are reportedly held in Switzerland which remains a primary host for offshore wealth alongside Luxembourg, Cyprus and the Channel Islands.
