Index Book review
— Shedding light on darker practices — Working for an Open and Democratic Society
Association for Accountancy & Business Affairs 2002 ISBN 1 902384 06 7 £8.95
Written jointly by Austin Mitchell, MP; Prem Sikka, of the University of Essex; John Christensen, of Menas Associates Ltd, a political and economic consutants; Philip Morris, Lecturer in Business Law at Stirling University; and Steven Filling, Associate Professor of Accounting at California State University.
Its 68 pages examine the case for reform of the laws on tax havens, and the problems of obtaining it in face of the overwhelming power of influence on governments by Big Business. It estimates that the UK government could raise up to £85bn extra tax by ‘plugging the leakage of tax revenues to tax havens’, and that around one third of the World’s GDP passes through tax havens.
Many of these ‘off-shore’ tax havens are British Crown Territories, both promoted and defended by the UK government. While they have their own governments, they are ultimately under the jurisdiction of the UK government.
The book focuses in particular on the example of Jersey, population 87 000 and 45 minutes flight from the UK mainland, and ‘home to some £400bn of footloose capital’, detailing its astoundingly undemocratic, not to say corrupt constitution, with effectively a single ‘political party’: Big Business, which effectively writes its laws for its own benefit. As a result, its laws favour the ‘offshore’ companies registered there, at the expense of its resident population. It illustrates the influence on the UK government of these same business interests in preserving the situation and resisting pressures for reform, from the OECD and others.
The authors end by noting that the social cost of tax havens is already too great, and urging that ‘we should all ensure that these fiddle factories of tax havens are brought to the attention of friends and neighbours to ensure that the trade of tax havens is given visibility in the press and political circles.’
This seems to be a topic missing from the Green Party’s Manifesto. Anyone care to draft a policy on it? This book would form a good starting point.
— Brian Leslie