[NCUC-DISCUSS] Does part of GTLD market is being moved with blurry money?

Tue Jan 12 14:16:03 CET 2016

This is an interesting observation, João, but I do wonder if this situation is really that problematic? Is it not great that there
are registries in the Caribbean who are exporting domain names and challenging
the heavy concentration of registries and registrars in other countries?
I find myself far more concerned that there were over 880 applications for new
gTLDs submitted from the United States than I do there being 91 applications
from the Cayman Islands. This is because registries and registrars are
businesses capable of creating jobs and market opportunities. And a cursory
glance at the background of, say, Uniregistry, does suggest to me that they are
legitimately based in the Cayman Islands. Their founder appears to have been
living there since at least 2003. There may well be a need for ICANN to help
people and businesses in some regions to develop the capacity to start a
registry of their own so they too can apply for gTLDs, but I'd be uncomfortable
with the idea that there should be limitations imposed on certain countries just
because they are perceived as being a tax haven (I appreciate you did not
suggest that).
That being said, if I may speak freely for a moment — isn't this the kind of tax
competition that lawmakers should expect? Shouldn't the burden be on countries
to consider lowering corporation tax to attract new business and thus, by
extension, increase revenue, much like Ireland and Luxembourg have done? Tax
competitiveness encourages investment. I'd also add —full disclosure, this is my
personal hunch, not necessarily supported by any empirical evidence!— that a
country having a low tax rate is far less important a consideration to tech
firms and other businesses compared with the availability of a skilled
workforce, resilient infrastructure, or proximity to markets.
Finally, just to expand upon Shane's point about this not being a new idea, I'm
reminded of the story of the Vestey Brothers. There's a good summary here , but the gist of it is, they were “abusing” transfer pricing back in the 1890s
by importing beef into the UK from Argentina and reporting group profits in
France. The UK's Inland Revenue agency spent over 60 years unsuccessfully
attempting to prosecute them for tax evasion. The entire time their staff were,
of course, paying income tax on their salaries, property tax on their real
estate assets, excise tax on some materials… my point being: few companies pay
no direct or indirect taxes.
Best wishes,
Ayden Férdeline

On Tue, Jan 12, 2016 at 6:38 AM, Shane Kerr < shane at time-travellers.org > wrote:
João,

Since the Internet allows business to run from anywhere, it makes sense
that companies would naturally migrate to places with low tax rates.

A less charitable interpretation would be that the new gTLD are mostly
run by domainers, who are involved in a shady business. ;)

An even less charitable interpretation would be that this is typical
corporate abuse of the international tax code to insure that
shareholders' gains are maximized instead of paying a fair share to
keep society running. :(

My guess is that this is all legal though. It's certainly not new.
Afilias was one of the first newish gTLD operators (it started
running info in 2001 or so) and it has technical operations in Canada,
business headquarters in the USA, and an accounting department in
Ireland. While I know that many people at Afilias like Guiness, I don't
think that's the reason for this corporate structure....

Cheers,

--
Shane

At 2016-01-11 10:50:48 -0200
João Carlos Rebello Caribé < caribe at entropia.blog.br > wrote:

> Folks,
>
> I need to deep this data, my first conclusion was based on the top countries:
>
> http://icannwiki.com/New_gTLD_ Stats
>
> Cayman Islands are the preferred tax havens followed by British Virgin
Islands, Gilbratar, and Switzerland.
>
> That's not curious ? So compare this with nationalities of members of GNSO (I
don't see this data yet).
>
> Top Countries
>
> USA: 884 applications[8]
> Cayman Islands: 91 (of which 54 were submitted by Uniregistry)
> Luxembourg: 85 (of which 76 were submitted by Amazon)
> British Virgin Islands: 72 applications (of which 70 were submitted by Top
Level Domain Holdings)
> Japan: 71
> Germany: 70
> Gibraltar: 62 (of which 60 were submitted by Famous Four Media)
> Switzerland: 51
> Applications were received from 60 countries.[9]
>
>
>
> Em 11/01/2016, às 09:22, Grace Mutung'u (Bomu) escreveu:
>
> > Hi Joao,
> > This is interesting. Do you have an analysis?
> > Regards,
> >
> > 2016-01-11 13:51 GMT+03:00 Alireza Kashian < alireza.kashian at gmail.com >:
> > Dear Joao
> >
> > Can you give us some samples for gTLDs you are referring to.
> >
> > best
> > Alireza
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 11, 2016 at 9:45 AM, João Carlos Rebello Caribé < caribe at entropia.blog.br > wrote:
> > Folks, nice Sunday!
> >
> > I was researching some facts about the gTLDs and the list of countries that
are top applying caught my attention, have a significant share of tax havens.
> >
> > Are they "laundering money" on the gTLDs market?
> >
> > --
> > João Carlos R. Caribé
> > Consultor
> > Skype joaocaribe
> > (021) 9 8761 1967
> >
> > ______________________________ _________________
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> >
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Grace L.N. Mutung'u
> > Nairobi Kenya
> > Skype: gracebomu
> > Twitter: @Bomu
> >
> > < http://www. diplointernetgovernance.org/ profile/GraceMutungu >
> >
> > PGP ID : 0x33A3450F
> >
>
> --
> João Carlos R. Caribé
> Consultor
> Skype joaocaribe
> (021) 9 8761 1967
>
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