The New York Times has an article on Gabriel Zucman's estimates of the sums hidden in tax havens this morning. I recommend reading it although I think he seriously under0estimates the sums involved which i hope the Tax Justice Network will address (again).
What attracted me was the closing paragraph which said this:
What's beyond question is that there is no economic, political or moral justification for tax evasion – it exists only because of the political influence that wealth buys. A society that fails to fight widespread tax evasion proclaims its own corruption.
That's what HMRC is permitting in the UK, proclaiming its own corruption at the same time as it cooperates with the cuts the government is imposing upon it which undermine its ability to tackle this cancer within our society. It's time we woke up and realised the threat.
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“What’s beyond question is that there is no economic, political or moral justification for tax evasion”
Depends on the circumstances. I think the Ugandan Asians were quite justified keeping their wealth out of Idi Amin’s hands.
RAre exceptions sometimes prove rules
This is so right but just doesnt seem that much of an issue to most people – Sure they see evasion is illegal but perhaps with a little cheekiness that beating the taxman is something to be proud of – The case needs to be made more forcefully that evasion deprives us all of funds that kills people due to lack of services – supports crime – terrorism and sexual abuse – Maybe then the populace won’t see it as a victimless crime and make more of a demand for it to be stamped out with serious penalties matching those for the crimes it benefits from
Agreed
But politicians shy from this
I genuinely do not know why
It’s that Robin Hood image in part … ‘cheeky’ little tax dodger who steals from the rich corrupt government – Although I don’t see any redistribution to teh poor) – Think in terms of Del Boy in only Fools and Horses – a pseudo modern day ‘hero’.
That in part is the perception and one which needs to change. They (the government/HMRC) need to focus more on the fact that these thieves are not Robin Hood’s they take but don’t give.
I think one can build a broad coalition against tax evasion, although it can be easier to say it’s the other fellow’s fault, not mine. The tricky bit is agreeing on how taxation money is spent. Perhaps now is the time to introduce the idea of some kind of hypothication, say on a limited choice, of where one’s tax monies are spent.
Hypothecation is a disaster
Great for animal welfare
Who pays for benefits?
“I think he seriously under0estimates the sums involved”
If I recall, the Tax Justice Network 2012 estimate was up to $32 trillion. No doubt that figure will have been increased by now on the basis of further guesstimates, extrapolations, what-ifs and suppositions. Certainly, some people who want to believe that it’s all a nasty neo-liberal plot have seized on the number without question but no serious academic study has supported it.
Many of the flaws in the TJN argument were discussed by Richard Gordon and Andrew Morriss (Moving Money; international financial flows, taxes and money laundering -see p93 onwards) but they did use lots of facts, cross-referenced a lot of their arguments, kept pointing out that many of the TJN’s figures were based on assumptions that were untenable and disagreed with the TJN’s findings so it’s best to ignore that.
And as you will note, all their flimsy arguments have been fully rebutted by TJN
Gordon and Morris revealed themselves hired propagandists in their work.
Could you provide a link to the TJN ‘rebuffs’?
Thanks
I did it in thus blog
Or just go to TJN
Maybe you could try Google
Respectfully, I consider such requests to be Mickey taking by those who consider their time mire important than mine
Ok found it.
In the interests of balance and for those with the time, here’s TJN’s link
http://www.taxjustice.net/reports-2/
and here’s the Gordon & Morriss report
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2348144