Extracts from Commons Emergency Debate on Tax Avoidance and Evasion (The "Paradise Papers")- Nov 14
Wednesday, 15 November 2017 07:18
Peter Dowd (Bootle) (Lab):...While tax avoidance is a global
problem, it is also a UK problem. The UK accounts for 17% of the
global market for offshore services. We are considered one of the
biggest—if not the biggest—players in the global offshore system of
tax havens. We account for some of the world’s key tax havens,
including Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Bahamas, British Virgin
Islands, Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the Turks and
Caicos Islands, all of which are either...Request free trial
(Bootle) (Lab):...While
tax avoidance is a global problem, it is also a UK problem. The UK
accounts for 17% of the global market for offshore services. We are
considered one of the biggest—if not the biggest—players in the
global offshore system of tax havens. We account for some of the
world’s key tax havens, including Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man,
Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Bermuda and
the Turks
and Caicos Islands, all of which are either crown
dependencies or British overseas territories and all of which are
afforded the support and the protection of the British Government.
Despite our prominence as a country at the heart of a network of
offshore tax havens that aids and abets tax avoidance across the
globe, the Government refuse to lead the way in global tax
transparency. I keep on using that word “transparency” and I will
keep on doing so...
Sir (Twickenham) (LD):...I
hope that the Government will now be much more aggressive in
pursuing the issue of the open register. They could give the
overseas territories a deadline for the introduction of an open
register. If the overseas territories do not comply, a series of
sanctions could be introduced—for example, initially stopping
companies registered there bidding for public contracts. Of course,
the ultimate sanction is what happened in the Turks
and Caicos Islands in 2009, when there was direct
rule. If overseas territories egregiously avoid taxation in a way
that seriously damages the UK, that is the kind of measure that
should be introduced...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
HERE
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