tax havens

The European Parliament has voted in favor of legislation - as part of the vote on the Shareholder's Rights Directive - obliging large companies across all sectors to publicly declare their earnings and taxes in the locations they operate – a move Oxfam welcomes.

Africa was cheated out of US$11 billion in 2010 through just one of the tricks used by multinational companies to reduce tax bills, according to new Oxfam report, ‘Africa: Rising for the few,’ released today.

The governments of Latin America and the Caribbean must implement fiscal reforms that benefit all citizens and not only economic and political elites, according to Oxfam. 

Inequality in Africa is rising to dangerous levels and unless checked will undermine the usefulness of economic growth on the continent.

Following Oxfam’s January report revealing that just 85 people owned the same wealth as the bottom half the world’s population, Forbes has updated its “billionaires' list”, showing that extreme inequality has worsened– just 67 people at the top now own half the wealth.

Today EU Finance Ministers discussed tax matters, including money laundering and automatic exchange of information between tax authorities.

If G20 nations were hit as hard by corporate tax dodging as Africa, they’d have a $1.2 trillion hole in their budgets.

Multinational tax evasion is entrenching poverty and weakening developing country economies, Oxfam has warned ahead of the G20 leaders meeting in Russia to chart a plan for boosting global economic growth.

During the two days of the G8 Summit, which starts today, $2.2 billion in illicit flows will have hemorrhaged from developing countries into tax havens and land one and a half times the size of Manhattan sold off to foreign investors.