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Monday, November 06, 2017

Did Cameron bottle it on the clamping down on tax havens?

Today's newspapers and all the media are full of new about the so-called Paradise Papers, a leaked set of documents detailing the financial details of the wealthy and powerful. Inevitably there will be calls for action by the UK Government, whilst Prime Minister's questions on Wednesday will be especially interesting, given the alleged revelations about Lord Ashcroft.

In the Independent, Vince Cable has given us another of those invaluable insights into the workings of the Coalition Government. He tells us that David Cameron vetoed attempts to clamp down on tax havens:

"In the Coalition Government I introduced the register of beneficial ownership, which established who owns British companies, and sought to extend that to British Overseas Territories. This was to clamp down on tax havens operating under the British flag.

"David Cameron was initially attracted to the idea, but when the Overseas Territories said on a visit to London that they were against it, he backed down."

He added: "Given these revelations, including news that Conservative donors benefited from these arrangements, we need a parliamentary select committee to investigate fully who decided what and why. In particular, we need the release of all government papers dealing with the decision not to clamp down on off-shore tax havens.

"Only in this way can we ensure there is full public confidence in the tax system."

A full inquiry followed by decisive action is absolutely essential in the light of what is contained in these documents.
Comments:
I hope that the programme identifies the owners of the right wing papers who own them.They are the people who dodge paying tax whilst attacking others. Equally you can bet they fund the Tories to keep the status quo on their side. If I do not hear anything on this line to me the BBC are complicit in the system.
A hard Brexit will benefit them with 'Disaster economics'(shares decline, they are picked up on the cheap £ declines they make a huge killing and when things level off they gain enormously)
Brexit is good for Tories cos of this. The rest of us take the hit.
 
Lets face it Cameron would benefit from keeping the system, he a Tory millionaire, change would not have helped him.
 
The programme points out a bit of 'legalese' A line that says 'They are deemed to live in the UK' The next line states the REAL home of the person.Therefore they only pay tax in that country (Belize)This is a big loophole to allow Ashcroft to avoid tax. The EU is beginning to clamp down on these problems. I can see why wealthy Tory donors will want to leave the EU. It is time the party looked at these issues
 
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