Tax havens are drawing media limelight after a journalist group disclosed 245 Korean businessmen and their families suspected of evading taxes by running paper companies in countries or territories that either have very low tax rates or do not impose them at all.

Tax havens are generally divided into three categories ― tax paradises, tax shelters and tax resorts.

Tax paradises mainly refer to countries that have no tax treaty regime with other countries and do not impose any income tax. They include the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

Tax shelters are Hong Kong, Liberia, Panama and Costa Rica, which levy very low tax rates, while tax resorts include Switzerland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, which provide tax incentives to certain companies.

(From news reports)