04) WEALTHIEST PEOPLE ON EARTH EVADE TAXES

 

PV Vancouver Bureau

 

            The world’s 62 wealthiest people own as much as the globe’s poorest half— around 3.6 billion people, Oxfam revealed on Jan. 17. In January 2015, Oxfam warned that within two years, the richest 1% would own more than the rest of the planet. That predication came true a year earlier than expected.

 

            The total riches of the group — just nine of whom are women — has increased by another $1.76 trillion (all figures US) since 2010, yet their wealth has not led to higher tax revenues to help the most needy. In comparison, the wealth of the poorest half of the world fell by $1 trillion over the same time, even though the number of people in this group rose by 400 million.

 

            The gap between rich and poor widened “dramatically” over the past year, exacerbated by the super-rich holding $7.6 trillion in untaxed, hidden offshore accounts. Their aversion to paying a total of $190 billion in taxes each year on this amount contributes to starving developing countries of funds that would pay for health, education, sanitation and infrastructure.

 

            Oxfam said urgent “concrete action” must be taken by world leaders to honour promises to crack down on tax-dodgers in order to tackle the “inequality crisis” by 2030.

 

            As much as 30 per cent of all African financial wealth is believed to be held offshore, according to the An Economy for the 1 Per Cent report published before the annual World Economic Forum, taking place Jan. 20-23 in Swiss ski resort Davos. This has cost $14 billion in lost tax revenue each year — enough to save four million children’s lives a year and to keep every African child in school.

 

            Oxfam’s chief executive Mark Goldring said: “It is simply unacceptable that the poorest half of the world population owns no more than a small group of the global super-rich — so few, you could fit them all on a single coach. In a world where one in nine people go to bed hungry every night we cannot afford to carry on giving the richest an ever bigger slice of the cake.”

 

            Tackling the “veil of secrecy” shrouding Britain’s network of tax havens would be a huge step in improving the living standards of the most impoverished people, he added.

 

             British PM David Cameron vowed in Davos three years ago to get tough on tax avoidance and warned corporations who get away with paying minuscule amounts on their huge profits to “wake up and smell the coffee.”

 

            Now he must deliver on his promise, Goldring said, as promises to increase transparency in British tax havens have not yet been implemented.

 

            Systematic tax avoidance is one of the “defining issues of global injustice,” according to Nick Dearden, director of campaign group Global Justice Now.

 

            He added: “The flow of aid that goes to countries in Africa is dwarfed by financial flows that are leaked out of the continent via offshore tax havens, exacerbating inequality and entrenching poverty. Even the aid that a country like Britain does pay becomes controversial because of tabloid-fuelled accusations that ‘charity begins at home. But again it is the fact that corporations and financial elites manage to pay so little tax that vital public services become starved.”

 

            According to Oxfam Canada, the wealthiest five Canadians have seen their assets increase by $16.9 billion since 2010, a 44 percent increase. Their total wealth is as much as the bottom 30 per cent of the country’s population – more than 11 million people. The poorest 10 per cent of Canadians only make about $2.30 more per day than they did 25 years ago, and the poorest half of Canada’s population has received just 26 per cent of the total increase in income growth.

 

            Oxfam Canada says the Trudeau Liberal government must combat the patterns being highlighted in this report, by leading the charge internationally against tax havens.

 

            (With files from www.morningstaronline.co.uk)

 

(The above article is from the February 1-14, 2016, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)