Big question: is reform of international tax law possible?

A panel of experts offer their views

by Prospect Team / April 8, 2016 / Leave a comment

David Cameron was apparently implicated in the recent Panama Papers leak ©Dan Kitwood/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Read another “Big Question”: Should we build on the floodplain?

This weekend, 11.5 million files were leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. They have been dubbed the “Panama Papers.”

The documents include sensitive financial information, and apparently implicate 72 former or current heads of state. Among them is David Cameron, who has admitted to profiting from his father’s offshore trust Blairmore Holdings, which is alleged to have paid no British tax for thirty years after its foundation in the early 1980s. Elsewhere, Iceland’s Prime Minister stood down on 5^th April after the Papers revealed his wife owned an offshore company with multimillion-pound claims on three Icelandic banks that have collapsed in recent years.

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Labour’s plan to raise income tax on £80,000 earners doesn’t cut it

Comments

John A.
April 16, 2016 at 13:01
“International action is the only way to clamp down on tax avoidance and evasion—and there is strong appetite in the European Union to tackle the problem.”I wonder how intense the appetite might be that Seema Marhorta refers to. A salient feature of the EU is Value Added Tax, for which there is no coherent ethical basis. It hinders the upward mobility of the weak and helps to facilitate a low top rate for the strong. A desire to see tax havens eliminated could hardly be consistent with the endorsement of this and other regressive taxes.
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Alyson
May 1, 2016 at 12:06
What is money for? The majority would say it is for paying bills, buying food and keeping a roof over their heads. For a small minority it is an opportunity to play a system for the purpose of winning power and control over resources which ordinary people need. The system of international trade and development provides opportunities for inequality to expand without proper oversight. Ronald Reagan saw the invention of the World Bank as an opportunity for America to gain world domination by lending to third world and developing countries to ensure that they did not gain the full benefit of their natural resources or be able to compete on a level playing field with America. He also taxed wealth at 75% so ensuring that America gained and not just a few wealthy individuals. Today 50% of the world's wealth is in the hands of just 62 individuals and wages are being forced down. Debt is stifling growth in Europe as well as the third world. The management of money itself needs to be looked at. What is it for? Who benefits from the systems we currently have globally for its exchange? Is there a need to redistribute or change the system so that debt is no longer the modus operandi of whole countries?
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