Taxes are the most important and generous revenue of the state. They are defined as mandatory benefits that the state takes from companies and individuals without immediate and direct counteraction in order to finance public expenditures with the help of collected money. That is, everyone has to pay the state a portion of their income in order for the state to provide public services such as health, education, social welfare, etc. However, there are also states that believe they can function with very low tax rates. Tax havens are countries or regions with a very low tax burden, which is why large amounts of world money of individuals and legal entities are "kept" in these countries. In the last decades of the 20th century, tax havens experienced a great boom, and thus became very strong financial centers, while many developed countries lose large sums of money precisely because of them. However, tax havens are also places where criminal activities in the form of “money laundering” earned through drug sales, tax evasion and similar illegal activities are facilitated. This paper first defines taxes and tax terminology related to tax evasion. It further defines the history, types and operations of tax havens, offshore areas, the world's most famous scandals related to tax havens and the characteristics for which they are considered as such, then tax havens in the Republic of Croatia, the pros and cons of tax havens and the future of tax havens.