The wealthy always offer the excuse that they’ve paid a lot of tax when caught using tax havens / secrecy jurisdictions. That’s what Liliane Bettencourt, the L’Oreal heiress has done. She’s been recorded referring to offshore holdings in the Seychelles and Switzerland and her defence is that she’s paid 400 million euros of tax in the last decade.

Liliane, hear me loud and clear. If the right number was 600 million I don’t care that you’ve paid 400 million. I do care if what you’ve paid is not enough, if that is the case. Big is not an issue. Right is. And it’s time the wealthy everywhere got that message.