We can no longer accept tax havens

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The Telegraph reports that:

Britain, France, Germany and a string of leading world economies have pledged to get tough with tax havens, adding more to a black list and drawing up punitive measures for uncooperative countries.

Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, representing Britain at a gathering to discuss the issue in Paris, said the meeting sent "a very strong signal that time is up for people not paying their taxes".

And:

Eric Woerth, budget minister of France, which hosted the meeting, said: "We can no longer accept that, at a time when we are committing taxpayer's money massively to bailout plans of the financial system, this (system) continues to offer tax havens,"

Switzerland came in for the harshest criticism at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development summit, with Germany insisting it should be placed the OECD's international blacklist of tax havens.

"Switzerland offers conditions that invite the German taxpayer to evade taxes. Therefore, in my view Switzerland belongs on such a list," German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said.

Hard to argue with any of that. Shame thoguh that Stpehen Timms sounded, as ususal, the most, well, timid.


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