King Charles urged to push for break up of UK’s ‘network of satellite tax havens’
King Charles has been urged to call for the breakup of the “UK’s network of satellite tax havens” through which an estimated £152bn worth of tax is avoided every year, according to campaigners.
Tax Justice Network, a coalition of researchers and activists campaigning against tax avoidance, are today calling on King Charles to use his reign as monarch to call for a revamp of laws that allow industrial scale tax avoidance in the UK, the crown dependencies and the British overseas territories.
The campaigners will tell King Charles in a letter today, seen by the Guardian, that they hope his coronation will “mark a pivotal moment to address the heavy financial and human cost borne by ordinary people … due to the UK and its network of tax havens over which your majesty is sovereign”.
“We believe your majesty can help by pointing the way to end one of the world’s most enduring injustices,” Alex Cobham, chief executive of the Tax Justice Network, said in the letter, which was also sent to the prime minister.
“The UK, the crown dependencies and the British overseas territories are collectively responsible for facilitating nearly 40% of the tax revenue losses that countries around the world suffer annually to profit shifting by multinational corporations and to offshore tax evasion by primarily wealthy and powerful individuals.
“This makes the UK and its network of satellite tax havens the world’s biggest enabler of global tax abuse. Our latest estimates from the state of tax justicereport put the sum of this tax loss imposed upon the world by British tax havens at over $189bn (£152bn).”
The campaigners said the lost tax income is equivalent to more than three times the annual humanitarian aid budget requested by the UN.
Curbing global
Read more on theguardian.com
