{"id":41569,"date":"2018-04-30T06:37:45","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T05:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=41569"},"modified":"2018-04-30T16:06:31","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T15:06:31","slug":"and-tax-haven-secrecy-now-this-mornings-letter-to-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2018\/04\/30\/and-tax-haven-secrecy-now-this-mornings-letter-to-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"And tax haven secrecy now – this morning’s letter to the Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Guardian<\/a>, this morning:<\/em><\/p>\n

As organisations and individuals committed to transparency and standing up for the rights of the world\u2019s poorest people, we urge the UK government to accept an amendment to the sanctions and anti-money laundering bill on Tuesday that would lift the veil of secrecy in Britain\u2019s overseas territories.<\/p>\n

Requiring them to publish public registers of company ownership by the end of 2020 would help tackle corruption and tax avoidance, and thereby help transform the lives of people in poverty (IMF to target City as part of crackdown on dirty money<\/a>, 23 April).<\/p>\n

Tax havens<\/a>\u00a0are estimated to cost developing countries $170bn in revenue every year. Greater transparency would help these countries claim their fair share of revenue, money they can then use to pay for public services. It is the poorest women and girls who most often miss out on medical care or the\u00a0chance to go to school.<\/p>\n

Five years ago, hundreds of thousands of people around the UK joined more than 100 charities to call for tax transparency from the UK and its overseas territories, a call accepted by the then prime minister. Tackling tax avoidance is a cause that has been championed by successive governments \u2014 including this one \u2014 and backed by MPs from all parties.<\/p>\n

Yet while the UK has pressed ahead with transparency measures, the UK\u2019s tax havens have held out. It\u2019s\u00a0time for\u00a0ministers to finish the job.<\/p>\n

Girish Menon<\/strong>\u00a0CEO, ActionAid UK<\/em>
\nVladimir Ashurkov<\/strong>\u00a0Executive director, Anti-Corruption Foundation (Russia)<\/em>
\nProf Prem Sikka<\/strong>\u00a0Director, Association for Accountancy and Business Affairs<\/em>
\nGraham Gordon<\/strong>\u00a0Head of public policy, Cafod<\/em>
\nFaiza Shaheen<\/strong>\u00a0Director, Centre for Labour & Social Studies<\/em>
\nChristine Allen<\/strong>\u00a0Director of policy and public affairs, Christian Aid\u00a0<\/em>
\nReverend David Haslam<\/strong>\u00a0Chair, Church Action for Tax Justice<\/em>
\nRoman Borisovich<\/strong>\u00a0Secretary, ClampK<\/em>
\nAndrew Feinstein<\/strong>\u00a0Executive director, Corruption Watch UK<\/em>
\nDr Wanda Wyporska<\/strong>\u00a0Executive director, Equality Trust<\/em>
\nPaul Monaghan<\/strong>\u00a0Chief executive, Fair Tax Mark<\/em>
\nShauna Leven<\/strong>\u00a0Director of corruption campaigns, Global Witness\u00a0<\/em>
\nJolyon Maugham QC\u00a0<\/strong>
\nRomilly Greenhill<\/strong>\u00a0UK director, One Campaign\u00a0<\/em>
\nChris Taggart<\/strong>\u00a0CEO, OpenCorporates<\/em>
\nZosia Sztykowski<\/strong>\u00a0Project lead, OpenOwnership\u00a0<\/em>
\nMatthew Spencer<\/strong>\u00a0Director of campaigns, Oxfam\u00a0<\/em>
\nJames Royston<\/strong>\u00a0Regional Coordinator, Publish What You Pay-International Secretariat<\/em>
\nPeter Holbrook\u00a0<\/strong>CEO,\u00a0Social Enterprise UK<\/em>
\nAlex Cobham<\/strong>\u00a0Chief executive, Tax Justice Network<\/em>
\nRobert Palmer<\/strong>\u00a0Executive director, Tax Justice UK\u00a0<\/em>
\nProf Richard Murphy<\/strong>\u00a0Director, Tax Research UK<\/em>
\nDuncan Hames<\/strong>\u00a0Director of policy, Transparency International UK\u00a0<\/em>
\nDr Mary-Ann Stephenson<\/strong>\u00a0Director, UK Women\u2019s Budget Group\u00a0<\/em>
\nLiz McKean<\/strong>\u00a0Director of campaigns and policy, War on Want<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Guardian, this morning: As organisations and individuals committed to transparency and standing up for the rights of the world\u2019s poorest people, we urge
 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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-secrecy-jurisdictions","category-tax-havens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41569","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=41569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}