An American organisation highlighting the massive tax
avoidance by transnational
companies recently stated that 18
of the country’s
biggest corporations were using
tax havens to “skirt”
$92billion in US taxes. These companies included Apple, Nike
and Microsoft . There was outrage
in Britain when it was reported that Starbucks had paid no tax
for three years on sales of l.2 billion
pounds ; its CEO , however , got
a hefty pay increase . The Brits
also grilled Google and Amason
( lost last letter of alphabet
) ; all kinds of loopholes to evade paying tax in
large deals were attributed to Vodaphone .
Media magnate
Rupert Murdoch made it into a cover story
in the New
Internationalist publication
of October 2008 headed WANTED FOR
DODGING TAX JUSTICE . It included the graphic
below .
The article said the Economist in March 1999 had discovered News Corporation in the four previous years had paid $250 million in corporation taxes worldwide-a mere 6% of its profits. Corporation tax in the US , Australia and Britain was more than 30% at the time . Furthermore , Newscorp Investments main holding company in Britain had paid no tax at all ,despite accumulating profits of $2.8 billion . The report said News Corps some 60 subsidiary companies used tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands .
The British monarchy, including QE 11 , the Queen of
Australia , were included
in the write
up because the House
of Windsor only
agreed to pay
tax in 1990
on the $80 million
of public
money paid annually
. Others mentioned
were
anti-poverty campaigner Bono ,
the Queen of Mean , American
Leona Helmsley
, and
the Prince of
Liechtenstein ,the small
principality which has one of
the “most secretive “banking
systems in the
world and kindly offered its
services to the Nazis to stash their loot
in its
vaults.
No wonder
governments all over the world -including Australia- struggle to find enough taxes to meet the community demand for
essential services. The greed
knows no bounds as many
corporations are seeking even more tax
concessions . Tax evasion and
avoidance will figure
large
in the G20 Leaders
Summit in St. Petersburg , Russia , which starts in a few days . Whether anything positive
comes out of
this gathering remains to be seen .After all, when Communism collapsed state assets were divvied up by a small number of privileged individuals who became incredibly rich .
