King Charles urged to clamp down on Britain’s tax havens
Global watchdog the Tax Justice Network (TJN) this week wrote an open letter to King Charles, urging him to clamp down on the country’s financial services jurisdictions which are often regarded as tax havens — jurisdictions where the wealthy hide money to evade taxes.
The UK, its Crown Dependencies, and the Overseas Territories are believed to be collectively responsible for facilitating nearly 40 per cent of the tax revenue losses that countries around the world suffer annually when multinational corporations and powerful individuals shelter their wealth in these countries.
The TJN says “this makes the UK and its network of satellite tax havens the world’s biggest enabler of global tax abuse.”
In the letter, the organization warned the King of the “heavy financial and human costs” inflicted on “ordinary people in the UK, the Commonwealth, and around the world” by the British tax havens over which King Charles is sovereign.
“Our latest estimates put the sum of this tax loss imposed upon the world by British tax havens at over US$189 billion a year, which is more than three times the humanitarian aid budget the UN requested for this year,” the open letter stated.
The letter also mentions research by the University of St Andrews and the University of Leicester which show that if the global tax losses caused by British tax havens were reversed, 12.6 million people would gain access to basic sanitation, and 1.2 million children would be able to attend school for an extra year.
Letter mentions BVI and trans-atlantic trade
The letter also mentions King Charles’ statements last year to the Commonwealth. In those statements, the monarch said we “must find new ways to acknowledge our past”. He also expressed His desire to deepen His understanding of the enduring impacts of slavery and other aspects of colonial violence and extraction.
“Rather than beginning to pay reparations for the violence, enslavement and extraction of the British empire, the UK’s ‘second empire’ is continuing to add to the debts that we owe. The scale of that debt is almost certainly unpayable. At a minimum, however, the time has surely come to stop the clock running,” the TJN said.
The organisation also wrote that “the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Jersey all rank above Ireland on the Corporate Tax Haven Index 2021, our ranking of jurisdictions most complicit in helping multinational corporations underpay corporate tax.”
With one of the biggest financial services industries in the world, the BVI has often come under fire as more countries call for the rich to stop hiding their money in offshore jurisdictions.
However, the Virgin Islands continues to defend the industry which is its highest income earner. A recent report by UK-based research and consultancy firm, Pragmatix Advisory, found that investments mediated by BVI business companies support around 2.3 million jobs globally and generate an extra US$14 billion each year in taxes for governments worldwide.
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DONT ALLOW A NOT S***R DELILAH TO GO CUSS THAT WOMAN IN THE UK AGAIN…SL**ANDE BE CAREFUL
DEM COMING
As one of the richest people on the planet you can be sure that (#NotMyKing) Charles has a lot of funds scattered around the Caribbean. Nothing to worry about here – MS won’t even pay for his own coronation – he won’t be taking any hits on his taxes.
Look where the BVI gone. We are doomed but we can’t see it. Lorna can only make matters worse while fooling herself and others like her that she has the answer.
Bulls**t games will not change anything.
won’t take any hits on their taxes.
The Conservative party in the UK have basically lost most of their credibility, meaning that the next general election will be a ‘unicorn election’ for the Labour party. In the past, the Labour party has discussed taking over the UK overseas territories and governing them from the UK with internal representatives. They have also made it a mission to reverse the laws allowing offshore environments to flourish in UK controlled jurisdictions. This is the future, like it or not, if the Labour party wins, which is now looking highly likely. The local elections this week will bare out what I am saying. The Tories will lose many seats to the Labour party.
They have been saying this for 30 years. Moving right along…………..look at who is writing the letter first of all, do some research instead of panicking every time you read a headline. The BVI is engaged in legal business and many of them are just upset to see brown people enjoying a certain standard of living while they cannot.
Yes, it is total BS. Tax avoidance is perfectly legal so these idiots are out of line. The UK has no grounds whatsoever to complain about this subject, nurses and doctors are grossly underpaid whilst the UK donates billions to Ukraine.
It would be nice if this “king” would pay his share of taxes like everyone else in the UK. Everyone else pays 40% tax on inherited assets over $400,000 but not the Royal Family. Charlie inherited his mum’s estate (estimated value $1.9 billion!!) tax-free. Paid not one penny in tax. This unelected head of state, should not lecture anyone about paying tax or democracy. Nor should the UK government.
Time for the UK to get rid of this nonsense and have an elected head of state.
Unemployed do not pay taxes. They need to get a job first.
UK Government does not work like that. Monarch has no jurisdiction over these matters. This is a simple PR tactic.
Further the UK could solve this problem with the stroke of a pen and pass a law requiring disclosure for all funds and the beneficial owners for all accounts and transaction over a specified limit within its borders.
They chose to give the IBC certain privileges because it is economically and strategically expedient to do so. Without it transborder transactions and multinationals would be taxed out of operation by the multiple jurisdictions they operate in.
Think the king aint got money to hide same way? lol
Believe it uk is coming but they doing it in a calm smart way watch and you will see
Money is the biggest con. The printers need money back or they need to keep poorer people working to support their lifestyles. Money is an illusion.
It’s tax planning is perfectly legal, not tax avoidance or evasion. The BVI is legally assisting it’s clients to do legitimate business worldwide. The Pragmatrix report proves that.
It is time to go independent because they have no good intentions for the BVI and all othe5 Overseas Territories in the Caribbean.
Not so much unemployed, but certainly unemployable.
Money is an agent of control of the 99% by the 1%.
global commerce, organized legacy govs. for 1/5 of the world, the train, jet plane , nuclear power, radar, space, beatles, stones, whiskey, internet . . . UK pioneered this sht.
STFU tjn. like the environmentalist who drives to an anti-oil protest, it’s an empty complaint bathed in hippocracy(sp). if anything, we compete on earth. UK untethered to EU, needs to expand its attractiveness to the worlds’ pioneers and capitalists. these tjn guys make liberal me, think they’re like unemployed whining rich kids. enjoying spoils of such while demeaning the system that supports them.
Just more socialists wanting to impose more controls on peoples lives and steal more money from them.
It isnt going to happen.
Fingers cross that this happens.
Would be a much needed improvement for these VI.