It’s alarming big European
banks, unlike ordinary people are not paying their fair share of
taxes, says Oxfam policy advisor Aurore Chardonnet. Tax dodging is a
crime against the people, a robbery of the population, adds business
consultant Gerald Celente.
Europe’s 20 largest banks are
involved in tax avoidance schemes, according to the latest Oxfam
report entitled Opening the Vaults. The banks registered over a
quarter of their multi-billion euro profits offshore. The report says
in some cases the companies didn't pay any tax profit of €383
million. They made almost €630 million in countries where they had
no employees at all.
Oxfam policy advisor Aurore
Chardonnet explained what is happening and why the situation is
alarming.
“Big European banks are
reporting far more profits in tax havens than their economic activity
suggests in figures,” she told RT. “That means they report
20 percent of their profits in tax havens while they only have seven
percent of their employees working there. So you see there is a big
mismatch.”
“It is alarming, because they
are not paying their fair share of tax. That is strongly suggested by
the figures. That means that while ordinary citizens a paying a lot
of tax on their wages, on their income...big multinationals are
avoiding their fair share of tax,” Chardonnet said.
In her view, the new Oxfam report
“is the beginning of a new era”.
“It is a beginning of tax
transparency and that is a powerful tool, to then have powerful
solutions against tax dodging,” she said.
“If you shift your profits
from where you do the proper activity, that means you’re not paying
the fair share of tax according to the numbers of employees or the
number of assets you have in a country. That means you’re depriving
countries from tax resources to pay for public services, for schools,
for hospitals, for infrastructure, which also trigger investments. It
is not illegal, but it is clearly unfair,” the Oxfam policy
advisor added.
Business consultant Gerald Celente
adds that it’s ordinary people who also have to pay the price for
offshore schemes of banks and big companies.
“They are doing terrible
harm. It is not a victimless crime. The people are the victims. Let’s
get this straight: it is a neo-feudal society. You have different
rules for the economic elite and the political nobility. So when they
don’t pay taxes, or they cheat the people out of money, like too
big to fail – no one goes to jail for their crimes,” he told
RT.
By not paying taxes, companies
“are robbing the population,” Celente says.
“They are hurting the school
systems. They are hurting the healthcare systems. They are hurting
the transportation systems,” he said.
According to Celente, it’s the
politicians who are to be blamed for making it possible as they are
being paid by “the 'too bigs'” to pass “unjust laws
that allow these people to use ‘tax havens’.”
“You’re looking at a system
that is robbing the little people. Look at the austerity measures
they have throughout Europe. The banks lose money. What they then do
– they call them austerity measures; they raise their taxes…they
rob people of their pension and retirement programs. They raise the
retirement ages till after they die, so that they could pay off the
bankers, so that people have to pay more taxes as the banks, and the
Googles, and the Microsofts, and the Starbucks, and the Ikeas are
paying very little taxes, because they are hiding them in offshore
tax havens. Isn’t that a sweet word – “tax havens?”
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