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Economy

Tax avoidance drives nearly 40% of global FDI: report

'Phantom' investment flows into Netherlands, Luxembourg and other tax havens

The central train station in Amsterdam: the Netherlands is one of the world's top destinations for "phantom" direct investment, a new study finds.   © Reuters

TOKYO -- Around $15 trillion flowed into tax havens in 2017 under the guise of genuine foreign direct investment, amounting to nearly 40% of global FDI that year, according to a new report co-written by the International Monetary Fund.

The research by the IMF and the University of Copenhagen gives an indication of the scale at which multinational companies seek to minimize their tax burdens, and it argues for greater international cooperation to ensure proper taxation.

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