According to Financial Times journalist Alice Ross, the book 'combines meticulous research with amusing anecdotes, resulting in a very readable account of the murky world of offshore and a strong moral message that the system needs to be changed'.The Irish Times called Treasure Islands an excellent book – breathtaking and terrifying – that explains how tax evasion of multinational companies has disastrous consequences for global politics and human well-being.London is described as the centre of a spider web that links to the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Caribbean, serving the needs of global capital.Switzerland is responsible for around 6 percent of the offshore trade. A further 10 percent derives from trade carried out through Britain's dependent territories. Shaxson believes that the United States and the United Kingdom are the biggest tax havens in the world, claiming that the US ( Delaware, Wyoming, Florida and Nevada) is responsible for approximately 21 percent of offshore business, while the UK is responsible for about 20 percent.

Every FTSE 100 company has subsidiaries or partners in tax havens to avoid tax. If banks and companies were included, the amount would be at least twice that.

The author estimates in the book that around $12 trillion, a quarter of the world's wealth, goes untaxed in tax havens.

Treasure island books