Tax dodging by big companies cuts funding for vital public services, increasing poverty and inequality around the world, while making the rich even richer.
The UK plays a central role in the "offshore" system that allows companies to dodge tax, with the City of London at the heart of the UK's network of tax havens including Jersey and the Cayman Islands.
We can't rely on big companies to pay their fair share of taxes, when they've shown time and again that they don't. Instead, we need our government to make strict rules that make tax-dodging impossible.
Despite tough talk from David Cameron and George Osborne, the government is set to pass new laws that will actually increase the risk of multinational companies like Starbucks, Amazon and Google exploiting the UK's tax laws to avoid billions in tax.
Call on Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, to abolish tax havens and put in place strict new rules to eliminate tax avoidance.
Dear Chancellor
Every year the UK government loses out on £25 billion in revenue to tax avoidance by large companies and rich individuals. At a time when the most marginalised are being hit by the impacts of severe public spending cuts it is a scandal that big companies and rich individuals are not paying their fair share in society.
Despite strong words from government ministers, I am concerned that the centrepiece of the government's attempts to tackle tax avoidance risks increasing the exploitation of the UK's tax laws by multinational companies.
[Your comments will be inserted here.]
War on Want's report, Avoiding Avoidance, shows that the government's proposals for an anti-abuse rule risks defining tax avoidance so narrowly that it may widen perceptions of what is acceptable, giving a green light to companies to avoid tax. The report also shows that the proposed rule would have had little or no impact on the most high profile tax scandals of 2012, including those involving Amazon, Google, Starbucks, the Student Loans Company, the BBC, the civil service, Jimmy Carr or Take That.
The abuse of countries' tax systems is a global scandal. Up to £20 trillion is now held by rich individuals in secrecy jurisdictions, better known as tax havens. While David Cameron has said that there are "too many tax havens, too many places where people and businesses manage to avoid paying taxes", the UK remains central to the 'offshore' system that allows this to happen, through its global network of tax havens including Jersey and the Cayman Islands.
Please take urgent action to stop the UK fuelling tax dodging by:
- Scrapping the government's plans for an ineffective and counterproductive 'anti-abuse rule' in the Budget and instead introducing a General Anti-Avoidance Principle to eliminate tax avoidance and recover an estimated £5.5 billion per year.
- Abolishing the UK's network of tax havens, the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories, by requiring an end to their financial and corporate secrecy.
- Stopping the cuts to HMRC staff and investing in a strong and effective workforce to tackle tax avoidance.
Yours sincerely,
[Your name]
