Capital movement through trade misinvoicing: the case of Africa (original) (raw)

Trade misinvoicing can be used as a tool to move capital in or out of a country in order to evade taxes and custom duties, to avoid quotas, for smuggling, to launder money, or as a means of capital flight. For whatever reason misinvoicing occurs, the economic development of the given country can be severely hindered. In the case of the African continent, the amount of annual capital outflows to the U.S. between 2000 and 2005 increased by more than 60%. This capital flow occurred mostly through low priced exports which can facilitate tax evasion, launder money, or just move money out of the country (capital flight). High priced imports are also used for capital flows and can be used to mask illegal commissions. Data was examined for deviations from average import and export prices as an indicator of capital flows. Four of the top thirty African countries to move capital to the U.S. are classified as Northern African countries. These four countries (Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) alone moved approximately 6,734millionthroughtrademisinvoicingwhiletheremaining26Sub−Saharancountriescombinedmovedatotalof6,734 million through trade misinvoicing while the remaining 26 Sub-Saharan countries combined moved a total of 6,734millionthroughtrademisinvoicingwhiletheremaining26Sub−Saharancountriescombinedmovedatotalof13,408 million. The country moving the most capital to the U.S. through trade misinvoicing was South Africa, a Sub-Saharan country.