There is more on the EU's work on tax evasion here.
The EU estimate of tax evasion and avoidance of €1 trillion is based on my work.
It's a shame the UK government does not take the same approach.
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Probably because most of it is evaded/avoided via the criminal financial institutuions in the City of London?
I didn’t watch the Clegg-Farage debate but I doubt they mentioned this. And where are the BBC on this? Still focusing on the ‘benefits fraud’ distraction.
Interesting they say “that money is your money”. I see it indeed like that. So does Cameron…
I find it fairly hard to believe that the EUR 1 trn number can be right – it’s more than the GDP of Spain (the 5th largest EU economy).
This EUR 1 trn number is derived in the most basic fashion, according to Richard Murphy’s own paper, as all he does is take the size of the shadow economy and multiply through by the average tax burden.
This makes three assumptions, all of which are very poor.
1. All tax from the shadow economy could be collected
2. The effective tax rate would remain unchanged, when in reality the bulk of transactions in the shadow economy, if declared, would be liable for the lowest rates of tax
3. The size of the shadow economy would be unchanged if tax law was more strictly enforced, to the point that avoidance and evasion were elimated. In reality, many small cash in hand type business transations would cease to happen.
As such, the 1 trn number can at best be called an upper bound for the problem. At worst, it is a wild exageration.
I never argued all the money could be recovered. If you lose a pound you have lost it whether or not you find it again
The loss is consistent with EU VAT data
I do not dispute the figure is in a range
I think the economy would be bigger if there was no shadow activity