TMF has crowned tax-haven Ireland the most hassle-free compliance environment in the world. Ireland climbed three places from last year's index to edge fellow tax-haven the British Virgin Islands and new entrants Latvia and Trinidad and Tobago to take 95th place in the Benchmark Complexity Index 2015. The league table uses survey data from TMF offices worldwide to rank jurisdictions from highest to lowest according to their complexity from a corporate secretarial perspective. Also earning spots in the coveted 'bottom 10' were Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Labuan, Barbados and Azerbaijan. The 2015 Index included 20 new entrants, bringing the total number of ranked jurisdictions to 95. The UK came in at 74th for the second consecutive year, while the US moved down three rungs to 53rd place.
High hurdles in Latin America
However, the red tape doesn't appear to be budging in Latin America. The region contributed five countries to TMF's 'top 10' most complex jurisdictions and a further three in the top 20, making Latin America the most complex region for business compliance in the world. Argentina topped the 2015 Index, followed by Columbia in third place, Mexico in sixth, Bolivia in seventh and Brazil in tenth. According to TMF experts, compliance hurdles facing business functions in areas such as health and safety, human resources and tax in Latin America are exacerbated by the need to adhere to laws which are often difficult to interpret and inconsistently applied. 'Ongoing political instability has also played a major role, as this has led to the significant delay of key pieces of legislation designed to simplify the business environment in some of these countries,' commented Raimundo Diaz, TFL Group's head of Americas. Asian regional heavyweights Indonesia and China also ranked among the most complex jurisdictions for business, coming in at second and fifth respectively.
Compliance trends
A growing number of multinational companies are implementing whistleblowing programs in a bid to raise global governance standards and identify internal weaknesses before they become public knowledge. Whistleblowing was thus ranked as the most often discussed matter by TMF Global experts in their day-to-day dealings with multinational clients. However, concerns about bribery and compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act are also on the rise, as far-flung elements of global operations become ever more connected. Competition law, cybersecurity and intellectual property rounded out the top five 'hot topics' in global compliance according to TMF experts. Source: TMF Group
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