Pay more tax, demands IMF’s tax-free chief

INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde has called for businesses to pay higher taxes – while a special deal means her own income is tax-free.

Lagarde slammed international firms for using loopholes to avoid paying their fair share, and that cuts to corporation tax in countries such as the UK and US have damaged faith in the system.

She said: ‘The ease with which multinationals seem able to avoid tax, and the three-decade decline in corporate tax rates, undermines faith in the fairness of the overall tax system. The international corporate tax architecture is fundamentally out of date.’

However, under IMF rules, Lagarde pays no tax anywhere in the world on her £382,000 salary. In addition, she also gets an allowance of £67,000 to pay for a standard of living appropriate to her position on top of travel expenses for her and her partner.

She was convicted of criminal negligence two years ago over a French corruption scandal, but spared punishment and allowed to keep her job.

The 63-year-old’s predecessor at the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was forced to quit following a sex scandal. And the managing director before him, Rodrigo Rato, is in a Spain jail for embezzlement.