UK territories among top 10 most corrosive corporate tax havens

UK's "controlled network of satellite jurisdictions" have "aggressively undermined" the ability of governments across the world to meaningfully tax multinational corporations, said the Tax Justice Network. 

"An estimated $500 billion in corporate tax is dodged each year globally by multinational corporations – enough to pay the UN’s under-funded humanitarian aid budget 20 times over every year," the network alleged. 

Its research captures a global corporate tax war waged by the UK through its network of satellite jurisdictions across the world. The data also reveals an aggressive annexation of low income countries’ tax rights by the UK and OECD countries including France and Sweden.

According to the Tax Justice Network, the top 10 countries that have done the most to proliferate corporate tax avoidance and break down the global corporate tax system are led by British territories – the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

A British government spokesman recently told Reuters that tackling tax avoidance was a priority and that the country had “been at the forefront of international action to reform global tax rules”.

“We’ve been at the forefront of international action to reform global tax rules, using our presidency of the G8 in 2013 to initiate the first substantial renovation of international tax standards in almost a century," the spokesman added. 

Reports from September reveal that the HMRC has opened 27 new serious tax evasion cases into some of the UK’s top businesses.