Bermuda has one of the most lax taxation regimes in the world, although the government of Bermuda rejects the description of the country as a tax haven.

The country, a British overseas territory, imposes no taxes on profits, income or dividends; nor is there any capital gains tax, estate duty or death duties. Profits can be accumulated and it is not obligatory to pay dividends.

The Bermuda government even offers companies establishing themselves in the country a further reassurance. According to the Bermuda Monetary Authority, even if taxes are imposed at a future date on profits, it won't hurt "exempted companies",which means those companies that establish themselves in Bermuda but have their headquarters elsewhere.

The authorities in Bermuda have also given guarantees to companies that, even if estate duty or inheritance tax were introduced, it would not be levied on shares until 2016 at the earliest.

The only "tax" imposed on exempted companies is an annual government fee, which is minuscule for most companies, running to $29,200 at the upper limit.

Insurance companies and reinsurers also benefit from basing their operations in Bermuda (or the Cayman Islands) and this has long been an irritant to US insurers. However, the new Irish financial regulator, Matthew Elderfield, has spoken publicly about his opposition to US president Barack Obama's plans to change tax rules that govern companies basing themselves offshore in places like Bermuda.

Elderfield, Bermuda's top financial regulator up until a few days ago, made his case late last year: "Bermuda is a source of capital and the lesson in the past six to eight weeks is that you need to get more capital in the financial system. Changing the tax system would be high risk and imprudent and you do it at your peril," he told a conference in November.

Obama triggered an anxious reaction late last year when he declared that the United States was determined to shut down certain tax havens. Since then the US has clashed with places like Switzerland in particular over the kind of disclosures that country provides to outside agencies.

While the OECD and the IMF have praised Bermuda's attempts to become more open about its tax regime and its willingness to co-operate with other jurisdictions, the internet is still swamped with information on the country's low tax offerings.

Bermuda's most famous export is its lax tax regime. Court filings from the US Internal Revenue Service have named the island as among "probable locations for US tax evasion". Democratic law makers in the US have for a long time spoken about the island as a major tax haven, although this is not the official policy of the Obama administration.

Emmet Oliver