By JESSICA CHIA FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Maximum security vaults packed with secrets and $7,000-a-night suites: A glimpse into the secretive world of 13 tax havens… and they really don’t want to let outsiders in.

Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti traveled to places like Singapore, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands
They wanted to learn more about the ways wealthy people utilize legal loopholes to avoid paying high tax rates
They had difficulty winning access to wealthy subjects, and focused on wealth managers and lawyers instead
Woods said tax havens allowed money to be ‘stolen’ from social security, schools and roads that would benefit every day people

For more than two years, a pair of photographers have traveled to 13 locations around the world in order to capture the unseen world of tax havens.
Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti went to Singapore, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands in order to learn about the ways in which the world’s one percenters move their assets offshore or create companies in order to get tax breaks.
But tax havens don’t just exist on exclusive, faraway islands – to prove their point, the two established a limited liability company, or LLC, in the unexpected tax haven of Delaware within 20 minutes, joining the likes of Apple, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Google, Wal-Mart.
In their new book, titled The Heavens, the photographers collaborated with author Nicholas Shaxson, to give a visual representation to the murky ways of tax avoidance and the trickle-down effects.
While these loopholes are certainly legal, those who resort to tax havens are understandably skittish about speaking to the press for fear of judgement.
The two photographers had difficulty winning access to their wealthy subjects, and instead focused on wealth managers and lawyers who help others navigate tax laws.
Woods told Slate: ‘I’ve worked as a war photographer in Afghanistan and Iraq. I worked in Iran for about five years. I’ve worked on the Chinese in Africa, who are more than press-shy. But no subject was as difficult as this one.’
They visited the vaults of a maximum security storage space in Singapore’s Freeport, located in the duty-free zone near the country’s Changi Airport.
It is home to billions of dollars of assets, and the vaults offer security as well as secrecy. According to the Wall Street Journal, tenants are allowed to offer a vague description of the goods, which they must register with customs.
Alain Vandenborre, the co-founder of FreePort, boasted more secrecy than Geneva to the WSJ, saying: ‘There’s no value, no ownership, no inventory list—all details are confidential.’
In other places such as Panama, the Colon Free Trade Zone allows people to import and export goods with no taxes. It is noted that drug money brought into the country through the zone, or cash transported through the airport feeds the country’s real estate boom.
Woods was not shy about expressing his disapproval of tax havens and he told Slate: ‘Those billions of dollars which do not go in the reserves of each country is money which is stolen from you, from public services, from schools, hospitals, roads, police, whatever.’

On the publisher Dewi Lewis’ website, the book’s description reads: ‘Driven by a relentless obsession to translate this rather immaterial subject into images, Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti have spent over two years travelling to the offshore centers that embody tax avoidance, secrecy, offshore banking and extreme wealth.
‘Their photographs reveal a world of exploitation and privilege that distorts the financial markets and benefits those that already have the most.
‘The book is presented as if it were an annual report and the accompanying text by author Nicholas Shaxson presents a clear insight into how these tax havens feed into the global economy and how they impact not only on the world of business but also on our everyday lives.’

IMAGES:
Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti traveled to 13 places around the world to translate the conceptual world of tax avoidance into a book of photographs on the subject. They went to the Cayman Islands
They visited the vaults of a maximum security storage space in Singapore’s FreePort, located in the duty-free zone near the country’s Changi Airport. It is home to billions of dollars of assets because tenants don’t have to specify exactly what they’re storing. Pictured, a man at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel with Singapore’s financial district behind him
Jason Blick, pictured polishing his Ducati 848, is the CEO of Cayman Enterprise City, which is establishing a free trade zone on the Grand Cayman Island
The famously low tax rates in Hong Kong have contributed to the wealth amassed there. Pictured, Giovanni Valenti, the chief Concierge of the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong, where suites cost up to $7,000 a night
Individuals who earn at least one million dollars a year are actively encouraged to relocate to the island of Jersey, between England and France, and are automatically given residential status, so that they can immediately benefit from the very low tax regime
Fiona Woolf, the Lord Mayor of The City of London, is photographed in her residence, the Mansion House. The local authority is known as an ‘offshore island’ within London, and home to the UK’s financial center
The Cayman Islands, a prime tourist destination, is also known as one of the world’s major offshore tax havens. In 2012, ABC reported Mitt Romney had millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands
Mr. Neil M. Smith is the British Virgin Islands’ Finance Secretary, pictured here in his office in Road Town, Tortola. The BVI is one of the world’s most important offshore financial service centers and the world leader for incorporating companies
Panama’s Colon Free Trade Zone, allows people to import and export goods with no taxes. Combined with the strategic location of the Panama Canal, the country attracts businesses and investors
A party called Sin City celebrates the third anniversary of Tantalo, a club in the colonial neighbourhood of Casco Viejo, Panama, which is being gentrified by Americans and Europeans who are buying property and driving up the prices

For more on this story go to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3514970/Photographers-spend-two-years-exposing-murky-world-tax-havens-new-book-examines-world-s-one-percenters.html#ixzz44OloAhGE