October With words of warning from the author, readers followed a brief history of the major dates which led the canton to exempt from taxation holding companies, domiciled companies and branches of international companies, along with a commendable exercise in transparency and justification from the local authorities. The cantonal director of finance had already referred to the lack of tax harmonisation and the risk of relocations to advocate their passive attitude to this:.
They are to be found in lawyers, notary or fiduciary offices, which provide a legitimate front for them. For example, the company Vicpart Holding had decided to establish itself at 18 rue Saint-Pierre in , domiciled with a fiduciary office, which also served as its auditor.
Vicpart Holding seemed to exist only through the local commercial register, but it still became the owner in October of In other words, after 10 years of doing nothing. The company changed auditor several times, an issue that the press got hold of. In the wake of this case, the holding company was placed in liquidation and finally delisted in March As for the fiduciary office that had provided a domicile to Vicpart Holding, it has changed its name and address several times, but is still currently operating in Fribourg.
Fribourg was also entitled to a separate chapter in the Panama Papers. The metadata made public by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ reported a trust office cited times in connection with offshore structures established in tax havens located in the Caribbean or Indian Ocean.
As was revealed by a participatory study performed last June with the support of Public Eye volunteers, most of the Swiss intermediaries are, five years after the Panama Papers scandal, still actively involved in corporate engineering. Nothing seems to stop this craze for providing domicile or result in any intermediary going to prison. Sometimes even holding companies stand on their own two feet.
