SYDNEY: Australia should create a global blacklist of of tax havens, and impose sanctions on those who exploit them, Oxfam has said in the wake of the global publication of the Paradise Papers.
“Scandals involving the super-rich robbing the world’s poorest of much-needed tax revenues, like those revealed in the Paradise Papers leak, can be avoided if the Australian Government and others take … immediate steps towards tax reform,” Oxfam Australia said in a statement.
Obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the Guardian and more than 90 media partners across the globe, the Paradise Papers reveal the offshore financial affairs of some of the world’s biggest multinational companies and richest individuals, and set out the myriad ways in which tax can be avoided using artificial structures.
Oxfam Australia chief executive Dr Helen Szoke said tax avoidance by multinationals in Australia was costing Australia and developing countries billions of dollars, fuelling a global inequity crisis.
“Australian-based multinationals are part of the problem, contributing to keeping the world’s poorest out of pocket as governments balance the budget by raising taxes on people and cutting vital public services,” she said.
