A light on murky dealings
The following is an excerpt from an editorial in The Guardian:
The millions of leaked files in the Paradise Papers once again shine a bright light on where the uber-elite stash their cash.
It’s clear a shift is under way: not only is the amount of wealth flooding into tax shelters around the world rising to unprecedented levels, but so much of wheeling and dealing is also done by a tiny fraction of humanity. Some of this is historical: until the early 1980s, the wealthy really could only squirrel away their cash safely in Switzerland. Since then, there has been an explosion in no-tax, high-secrecy locations at the same time that deregulation and globalization swelled the ranks of the superrich. Tax havens have facilitated the rise in global inequality. If it feels like there is one set of rules for the rich and another for the poor, it is because there is .
Taxes are, as a noted American jurist put it, the price we pay for civilization. Voters tax themselves, among other things, for schools, roads, a health service, for welfare provision, to pay their soldiers and build a diplomatic corps. When a group at the top of society secedes and forms a globally mobile republic, able to choose which jurisdiction they wish to operate under, the public is right to ask why we allow this to happen. Why should taxes just be for the little people?
There’s little evidence that the tax authorities or the police have the resources to go toe-to-toe with the global elite. The government could shrink the tax avoidance industry overnight — by banning giving public sector contracts to big consulting firms that offer tax advisory services. If Crown dependencies and overseas territories want to trade on an association with Britain, then tell them to accept mainland standards for regulating financial services.
After the austerity years of private affluence and public impoverishment, there are few takers for the idea that the rich shift cash offshore for laudable reasons. The public mood is one of cynicism, not merely skepticism — and it’s justified by the revelations that politicians have failed to take seriously enough for years.