{"id":12336,"date":"2011-10-11T06:43:43","date_gmt":"2011-10-11T05:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=12336"},"modified":"2011-10-11T06:43:43","modified_gmt":"2011-10-11T05:43:43","slug":"the-ftse-100-and-tax-havens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2011\/10\/11\/the-ftse-100-and-tax-havens\/","title":{"rendered":"The FTSE 100 and tax havens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Action Aid has published a report today<\/a> on the use of tax havens by FTSE 100 companies that builds on work originally done here<\/a>. In its summary of its findings it says:<\/p>\n

The full extent to which FTSE 100 companies use tax\u00a0havens has, for the first time, been compiled, analysed\u00a0and published in an accessible and searchable format by\u00a0ActionAid.<\/p>\n

Of the 100 biggest groups listed on the London\u00a0Stock Exchange, 98 use tax havens. ActionAid\u2019s\u00a0research shows just how embedded the use of tax\u00a0havens is in the structures of nearly all Britain\u2019s\u00a0biggest companies.The findings are of particular concern because many FTSE\u00a0100 groups are set to benefit from plans currently under\u00a0consideration by the Treasury to give multinational\u00a0companies using tax havens an \u00a3840 million tax break, by\u00a0relaxing the very rules designed to prevent tax-haven\u00a0abuse.<\/p>\n

An expanded tax revenue base in developing countries is\u00a0the only sustainable source of funding for governments to\u00a0invest in reducing poverty and inequality. It means that\u00a0they don\u2019t need to depend on aid and can achieve\u00a0self-reliance. Yet, the OECD estimates that developing\u00a0countries lose almost three times more to tax havens than\u00a0all the aid they receive each year.\u00a0Spent effectively, this\u00a0sum would easily be sufficient to achieve the Millennium\u00a0Development Goals.<\/p>\n

Corporate tax avoidance, one of the main reasons\u00a0companies use tax havens, has a massive impact on\u00a0developing and developed countries alike. The lack of\u00a0transparency makes it difficult for developing country tax\u00a0authorities to identify and collect taxes owed by global\u00a0companies operating in their countries.\u00a0With this in mind, ActionAid\u2019s research raises serious\u00a0questions about many of Britain\u2019s best known businesses.\u00a0How has the use of tax havens reached such epidemic\u00a0levels? What is the impact on the UK exchequer, the\u00a0stability of the international financial system and the ability\u00a0of developing countries to raise tax revenues to invest in\u00a0reducing poverty?<\/p>\n

ActionAid found that:<\/p>\n

- The FTSE 100 largest groups registered on the London\u00a0Stock Exchange comprise 34,216 subsidiary\u00a0companies, joint ventures and associates.\u00a0_<\/p>\n

- 38% (8,492) of their overseas companies are located in\u00a0tax havens.<\/p>\n

- 98 groups declared tax haven companies, with only\u00a0two groups, Fresnillo and Hargreaves Landsdown, who\u00a0did not._<\/p>\n

- The banking sector makes heaviest use of tax havens,\u00a0with a total of 1,649 tax haven companies between the\u00a0\u2018big four\u2019 banks. They are by far the biggest users of the\u00a0Cayman Islands, where Barclays alone has 174\u00a0companies.<\/p>\n

- The biggest tax haven user overall is the advertising\u00a0company WPP, which has 611 tax haven companies.<\/p>\n

- The FTSE 100 companies make much more use of tax\u00a0havens than their American equivalents.<\/p>\n

- There are over 600 FTSE 100 subsidiary companies in\u00a0Jersey (more than in the whole of China), 400 in the\u00a0Cayman Islands and 300 in Luxembourg \u2014 all tiny tax\u00a0havens.<\/p>\n

We believe that the FTSE 100 have big questions to\u00a0answer about why they require such a massive number of\u00a0companies registered in tax havens. While this piece of\u00a0research in itself does not prove tax avoidance, it\u00a0highlights the extent of these multinational groups\u2019\u00a0operations in places that provide tax advantages and help\u00a0obscure information.<\/p>\n

In recent times, politicians around the world and across\u00a0the political spectrum have talked tough on cracking down\u00a0on the use of tax havens to avoid taxes. With both\u00a0developing and developed countries continuing to suffer\u00a0the effects of the global financial crisis, decisive action to\u00a0tackle tax havens from both the UK government and G20\u00a0leaders is well overdue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Action Aid has published a report today on the use of tax havens by FTSE 100 companies that builds on work originally done here. In
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,32,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-secrecy-jurisdictions","category-tax-havens","category-tax-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}