Thursday, November 09, 2017

Britain supports tax cheats

Hot on the tail of the news that British tax-cheating and corruption goes right to the top, the Independent reports that the UK is trying to get the EU to water down its anti-tax haven rules:
The British government pushed to water down key parts of an EU crackdown on corporate tax havens at a European Council meeting this week, days after the Paradise Papers leak revealed more evidence of tax dodging in UK overseas territories.

Ahead of Tuesday’s ECOFIN meeting of European finance ministers, EU commissioner Pierre Moscovici had called for countries to “rapidly adopt a European tax haven list” in light of the revelations, as well as arguing that such a list should be enforced with “credible and meaningful” sanctions.

The UK, however, is reported by Politico to have teamed up Luxembourg and Malta to push back against the inclusion of such sanctions, which would likely include British territories such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, which were implicated in the Paradise Papers.


Which obviously makes sense to the corrupt British establishment wanting to hide its ill-gotten gains. But they've forgotten something: they're leaving the EU. So why the hell would the EU give a shit what they think about anything anymore?