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30 October 2012

ADDRESSING TAX EVASION 


“I think, if you make a lot more money than most people — like I do — you should pay more tax and subsidise people who work just as hard as you, but don’t earn as much,” - Daniel Radcliffe, actor (best known for his role as Harry Potter) and worth an estimated $47 million.

Tax provides the money for services that we all need, like health care, education, aged care, clean water and roads. However, some wealthy individuals and multinational companies engage in large scale tax dodging, avoiding paying hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes globally. This means everyone else has to pay more tax or go without essential services. The impact on developing countries is devastating, denying them the money they need to be self-sufficient and making them more dependent on aid and debt.

It is estimated that for every $10 given in aid to the developing world, $15 slips out through tax dodging? Christian Aid estimates that tax dodging costs poor countries $160 billion a year. Money that could be spent building schools and hospitals.

Visit the JustAct website  to learn what action you can take on this issue.


Corruption, crime, and tax evasion in the form of illicit financial outflows cost the developing world US$1 trillion per year according to research carried out by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), with Mexico—the current chair of the G20—suffering more than half a trillion dollars in outflows over the past decade. Illicit outflows pose serious problems for developed Western economies as well, with Greece—the epicenter of the European debt crisis—hemorrhaging US$160 billion in illicit outflows from 2000 through 2009.


Some positive developments emerged at the recent meeting of G20 leaders in Los Cabos, Mexico where G20 leaders were praised by Global Financial Integrity (GFI) for prominently focusing on the issue of illicit financial flows, committing to move toward the automatic exchange of tax information, and renewing the mandate of the Anti-Corruption Working Group for another two years. However disappointment was expressed at the leaders’ failure to address the issue of anonymous shell companies.






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