Yachtsmen worldwide know Monaco for its role as host of the annual Monaco Yacht Show as well as home to many a permanent and visiting superyacht in Port Hercule. Travelers from other walks of life know it for its high-end shops, its casino, and of course the pink palace overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, where the late Prince Rainier and Princess Grace brought even more international fame and acclaim to the Grimaldi family.
Despite this, the principality still believes it has an image problem: that of international tax haven. It has therefore hired a public-relations team to give itself a makeover.
Members of Prince Albert II’s administration are quoted in news reports as saying, “The idea has been floating around for months, but the decision was obvious after the G20 summit,” which was held in April. At that meeting, the G20 countries, including Monaco, agreed to identify a blacklist for tax havens, based on compliance with an internationally agreed tax standard. The list, created by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international group striving for sustained global economic growth on a multilateral, nondiscriminatory basis, originally included Monaco, but the principality was soon placed on a “grey list” of 20 countries, ones that have committed to but not fully implemented the standard.
Monaco officials have stated that they intend to leave the grey list by early next year and be ready to change the principality’s image. Why is this so important? The stigma. Tax havens have low or, in some cases, no taxes, a situation which economists and some governments find akin to being a tax-avoidance country. The laws in some tax havens lack transparency and permit individuals and corporations to evade the tax regulations elsewhere.
So how will the public-relations team change Monaco’s image, and what impact, if any, will it have on visiting megayachts and their owners? It will be a while before specifics are known, though reports state that 500,000 euros (about $710,600) has been set aside for research, a panel of international personalities will be consulted on “what Monaco should be,” and many more millions of euros will be spent for years on carrying out the eventual campaign.
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