Wealth hidden in tax havens could help fight climate crisis
The amount of tax lost every year to multinational corporations and wealthy individuals using tax havens is on par with the amount of money needed each year to cover the estimated cost of climate-induced loss and damage.
This is the position being taken by Tax Justice Network (TJN) — an international group that lobbies against tax abuse.
TJN pointed out that countries collectively lose US$480 billion in tax to tax havens a year due to profit shifting by multinational corporations and offshore tax evasion by wealthy individuals.
The group then pointed out that leading estimates on the annual cost of climate-induced loss and damage range from US$290 billion to US$580 billion.
“Research by Climate Analytics and commissioned by Oxfam reports projected macro-economic damage of climate change for developing countries to range from US$400–US$431 billion per year by 2030,” TJN said in a recent statement.
“At the heart of the twin crises of climate breakdown and runaway inequality is a catastrophic misuse of tax policy to prioritise the super rich over everybody and everything else. Governments can and must reprogramme our tax systems to protect the needs of all members of society, including the existential need to respect planetary boundaries,” said Franziska Mager, the Tax Justice Network’s senior researcher and advocacy lead on climate and inequality.
Lower income countries — many of whom bear the brunt of climate change — have been locked out of decision-making on global tax rules for decades. For over 60 years, a small club of rich countries at the OECD, including some of the world’s most harmful tax havens, have decided on global tax rules behind closed doors for the rest of the world.
The OECD has received widespread criticism for global tax rules that prioritise its rich member countries, and fail to support – and at times undermine — lower income countries’ abilities to collect the tax revenues they urgently need.
Countries at the UN adopted by a landslide majority last month a resolution to begin the process of establishing a framework convention on tax, and completely change how global tax rules are decided. The framework convention can eventually move decision-making on global tax rules from the OECD to the UN.
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This is a major attempt to dodge a bullet with your name on it. If you helped cause the environmental crisis then you should take responsible not ask me (the victim) to get it from somebody else.
Lets make up some numbers and get ourselves in the papers.
Fight Climate Change – was there any notion ever so ridiculous.
The climate changes all the time, always has done and always will.
How are you going to “ fight it “?
Rubber Duck, why don’t you get on the phone and tell all those people who actually look into this issue, and alert them to the incredible facts you just laid out!
All those foolish professors, doctors, biologists, climatologists, fishermen, hunters, stewards of the land, space scientists, farmers, native peoples, militaries, businesses, industries currently switching to renewables etc etc etc, all around the world- get them on the phone and tell them what you know because there’s no question they are not as smart as Rubber Duck and probably do not know that the climate has changed over time and fighting climate change is pointless!
Tell them, quick because you are so smart and they are not at your level.
And of course, bring whatever you have that can prove it to them. That way they can ignore all of the other knowledge they have found out about the subject, and only listen too you. Because you are smart. You know better. Thank God for you, and those like you, who know very little but have big opinions!
Ha! Personally I think it is great news, and that this money should be chased down, uncovered and used to help fight the climate crisis.
But I know the BVI is a strange little bubble of self reinforcing delusions where we celebrate the avoidance of tax like it’s some kind of human right, and just straight out pretends there is no climate issue at all, or if there is it is a problem for the big countries.
So, yes, great work TJN – but not one soul around this weird right wing libertarian christian fundamentalist self-deluding bubble territory is going to give a rat’s donkey.
Keep drinking the Kool Aide. As if the BVI and other small countries are responsible for or can do anything about the tax codes in the US, Europe and other countries.
These people are such idiots!
More BS from a bunch of people who are useless.
In one stroke all countries could require beneficial owners to register with their tax authorities and charge whatever taxes they wish to charge on companies registered outside of their jurisdictions. In fact many have already done this for real estate and other transactions.
Who really is buying this crap that this is the fault of, caused by, or can only be solved by a couple small countries? The first world and these tax justice crusaders all know the truth. Both have their agendas and reasons for perpetuating this BS narrative.
Broke people always have a problem with people who have business and money then wonder why they are f**king broke! People who are savvy enough to structure their affairs in their favor are not devils, they’re just smarter than the average.
Someone thinks they’ve found a new cookie jar!
Tax is evil.
TJN has a bit of “form” when it comes to making fairly outlandish claims about levels of global tax avoidance based on patchy (and often self-generated) data. Most of their claims get quickly debunked when subjected to serious scrutiny. We’ll see if this latest claim gets similar careful analysis or – like in this case – just gets lazily repeated by journalists looking for an easy story.
Yet another attempt by the cynical people who set the agenda to change the conversation. We know this story may be influential but not true. Let’s focus on the real causes of climate change and the culprits who fight against remedying it.
Well there goes any monies from BVI…