<span id="midArticle_start"/> <span id="midArticle_0"/>WASHINGTON, June 1 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - M ultinational companies deprive African governments of $11 billion in taxes each year, and G7 world leaders should set up a new global body to regulate corporate taxation, Oxfam International said on Monday.
<span id="midArticle_1"/>By shifting profits overseas to lower tax regimes, companies legally avoid paying taxes to the African countries where they generate revenues, depriving governments of money they desperately need for development, the anti-poverty group said in a report on Africa.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>When leaders of the G7 major industrialised countries meet in Germany on June 7-8 to discuss how to support economic growth in Africa, a vital component of their talks should be comprehensive reform of the global tax system, Oxfam said.
<span id="midArticle_3"/>"It's absurd that there are international organisations for trade, health and football but not for tax," Oxfam International executive director Winnie Byanyima said.
<span id="midArticle_4"/>An international body similar to the World Trade Organisation could represent all countries' interests and mediate disputes among taxation regimes, Oxfam said.
<span id="midArticle_5"/> <span class="first-article-divide"/>Oxfam based its calculation of the tax revenue Africa loses on a United Nations-backed study released in April that estimated $50 billion in illicit funds flow out of the continent each year, much of it through corporate trade mispricing to avoid taxes or in transfers of money obtained corruptly.
<span id="midArticle_6"/>This is almost double the official development aid Africa receives each year.
<span id="midArticle_7"/>G7 leaders already are discussing how to make the global taxation system fairer, but developing countries complain they have no seat at the table in those talks, even though they are the victims of the present system.
<span id="midArticle_8"/> <span class="second-article-divide"/>Collecting more taxes would make them less dependent on aid, an issue that is gaining importance as world leaders prepare to adopt an ambitious new set of development goals for ending extreme poverty in September and climate goals by year end - all of which will be costly to fund.
<span id="midArticle_9"/>"We have discussions this year that shape the development agenda for the next 15 years, and how we finance it is crucial to making progress," Claire Godfrey, Oxfam senior adviser and author of the report, said in an interview.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>Tax reform would go a long way towards funding new commitments to improve schooling and healthcare, she said.
<span id="midArticle_11"/> <span class="third-article-divide"/>For example, G7-based companies alone avoid about $6 billion a year in taxes due to African governments, more than three times the amount the Ebola-affected countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau need to plug their funding gaps to deliver free primary healthcare, she said.
<span id="midArticle_12"/>One quarter of South Africans go to bed hungry each night and a further 25 percent are at risk of missing a meal, said Malcolm Damon, director of Economic Justice Network for southern Africa. Governments need resources to reduce poverty, he said.
<span id="midArticle_13"/>"Though it is legal what transnational corporations are doing in transferring profits, the fact is that it is an immoral situation," he said in a telephone interview.
<span id="midArticle_14"/>The G7 summit takes place on June 7 and 8 in Bavaria, Germany, and in July world leaders and ministers meet in Addis Ababa to consider how to finance the new development agenda.
<span id="midArticle_15"/>(Reporting by Stella Dawson; Editing by Tim Pearce)
<span id="midArticle_16"/>
<span id="midArticle_1"/>By shifting profits overseas to lower tax regimes, companies legally avoid paying taxes to the African countries where they generate revenues, depriving governments of money they desperately need for development, the anti-poverty group said in a report on Africa.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>When leaders of the G7 major industrialised countries meet in Germany on June 7-8 to discuss how to support economic growth in Africa, a vital component of their talks should be comprehensive reform of the global tax system, Oxfam said.
<span id="midArticle_3"/>"It's absurd that there are international organisations for trade, health and football but not for tax," Oxfam International executive director Winnie Byanyima said.
<span id="midArticle_4"/>An international body similar to the World Trade Organisation could represent all countries' interests and mediate disputes among taxation regimes, Oxfam said.
<span id="midArticle_5"/> <span class="first-article-divide"/>Oxfam based its calculation of the tax revenue Africa loses on a United Nations-backed study released in April that estimated $50 billion in illicit funds flow out of the continent each year, much of it through corporate trade mispricing to avoid taxes or in transfers of money obtained corruptly.
<span id="midArticle_6"/>This is almost double the official development aid Africa receives each year.
<span id="midArticle_7"/>G7 leaders already are discussing how to make the global taxation system fairer, but developing countries complain they have no seat at the table in those talks, even though they are the victims of the present system.
<span id="midArticle_8"/> <span class="second-article-divide"/>Collecting more taxes would make them less dependent on aid, an issue that is gaining importance as world leaders prepare to adopt an ambitious new set of development goals for ending extreme poverty in September and climate goals by year end - all of which will be costly to fund.
<span id="midArticle_9"/>"We have discussions this year that shape the development agenda for the next 15 years, and how we finance it is crucial to making progress," Claire Godfrey, Oxfam senior adviser and author of the report, said in an interview.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>Tax reform would go a long way towards funding new commitments to improve schooling and healthcare, she said.
<span id="midArticle_11"/> <span class="third-article-divide"/>For example, G7-based companies alone avoid about $6 billion a year in taxes due to African governments, more than three times the amount the Ebola-affected countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau need to plug their funding gaps to deliver free primary healthcare, she said.
<span id="midArticle_12"/>One quarter of South Africans go to bed hungry each night and a further 25 percent are at risk of missing a meal, said Malcolm Damon, director of Economic Justice Network for southern Africa. Governments need resources to reduce poverty, he said.
<span id="midArticle_13"/>"Though it is legal what transnational corporations are doing in transferring profits, the fact is that it is an immoral situation," he said in a telephone interview.
<span id="midArticle_14"/>The G7 summit takes place on June 7 and 8 in Bavaria, Germany, and in July world leaders and ministers meet in Addis Ababa to consider how to finance the new development agenda.
<span id="midArticle_15"/>(Reporting by Stella Dawson; Editing by Tim Pearce)
<span id="midArticle_16"/>
via Smart Health Shop Forum http://ift.tt/1GhMHTr
No comments:
Post a Comment