GMB Magazine GMB25 Centre Point Summer 2016 | Page 14

SPECIAL
T
R
O
P
E
R
ce
n
a
On Tax Avoid

X
A
T
E
R
NO MO
OUR MONEY IN PANAMA
Hats off to the journalists who
uncovered the Panama Papers.

T

action is promised. The prize is £34 billion in
ime was when the tiny tropical
unpaid UK taxes every year – which could
country of Panama was famous for
help save the NHS and public services.
only two things – hats and a big
canal. Now it’s infamous as the
source of the Panama Papers, 11 million secret
DODGY DAVE
documents exposing the private tax affairs
Driven by a wave of bad publicity about his
of the rich and powerful. Foreign dictators,
personal financial affairs, David
showbiz and sports stars, celebrities
Cameron unveiled measures to
and even our own dear Prime
criminalise tax evasion. A new law
Minister were caught up in
will enable UK banks and finance
a global scandal.
firms to be prosecuted if they ‘fail
To Tory shame, more than
to take adequate steps’ to prevent
half of the hundreds of
their clients from hiding their
thousands of companies
ill-gotten gains from the
named in the Panama Papers
taxman. But the shake-up
were registered in UKmet with a storm of
governed tax havens, chiefly
protest from the
the British Virgin Islands. But
Conservative Party’s
some good may eventually
rich pals in the City, who
come from this media carnival
claim it will put them
of ‘hunt the dodgers’. There is a
at a disadvantage with
huge public appetite for change
other big players like
that can’t be ignored by the
France and Germany.
politicians any longer.
Tough action looks
The scandal is forcing a radical
a long way off.
rethink of the laws of tax
Ministers will consult
governance, compelling greater
on draft legislation
disclosure of who owns what,
this year, and the
where and how, and whether
STOP THE DODGING
The government should use
original 2020
they pay their dues to society.
the law to end tax avoidance.
target date for
National and international

implementation appears wildly optimistic.
The government is also preparing to crack
down on lax supervision by the authorities in
Britain’s 17 crown dependencies and overseas
territories, where much of these financial
shenanigans occur. Most of these offshore
havens, including the Cayman Islands,
Bermuda and the Isle of Man, have agreed to
provide full access to tax information on the
beneficial ownership – who gets how much
– to UK officials.
Dame Margaret Hodge MP, former Labour
chair of the Public Accounts Committee,
urged Cameron to use government power
to instruct the UK tax havens to compile and
publish registers of beneficial
ownership. However, Cameron
promised merely to ‘encourage’ such
co-operation, and two taxbusters –
Guernsey and Anguilla – promptly
rejected the idea. What’s more, the
information will only be available to
some UK officials. The public won’t
have a right to know – nor will the
investigative journalists who
broke the Panama scandal.

CLEAN UP BRITAIN
All the money lost through tax
evasion could fund public services.

14 GMB National

GMB25.national_14_15.7gw.indd 14

15/06/2016 11:26

©iStock.com x 2 / Andrew Wiard x 4

We have the chance to end the corruption and
bring about a fairer society, says Daily Mirror
columnist Paul Routledge