Did you know that the top three tax havens are British overseas territories? Why is this allowed, you say? Promises were made by politicians to shut down these loopholes but they have strangely never materialised.
Most of the wealthy individuals who donate to political parties and politicians are connected to big business. The National Federation of Independent Business reported in 2016 that “Large corporations offshore tax havens put incredible burden on small business”.
According to The Guardian in 2013 “Only two of the [highest valued corporations] have no subsidiaries in [Tax] havens”. They say “In total, FTSE 100 companies have 1,685 subsidiaries in UK Crown dependencies such as Jersey, or overseas territories such as the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Bermuda and Gibraltar.”
Many of the donors whether individuals or companies may also have investments in the numerous shell companies of tax havens, where details can be hard to find.
A report by Sky News in 2023 alleges that “The third-biggest overall donor to individual MPs is a company registered to an office in Hertfordshire that has no website and, according to its accounts, has no employees. MPM Connect Ltd has given £345,217 to three well-known Labour MPs: shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper (£184,317), shadow health secretary Wes Streeting (£60,900) and former mayor of South Yorkshire Dan Jarvis (£100,000).”
A report on suspicious shell companies by Buzzfeed in 2018 contained an interview with tax expert Richard Brooks, who said “the law is only as good as its enforcement… but they’re not actually doing anything… They’re not resourcing anyone to police their own rules.”
Worse still, monopolies form, regulations get pushed to politicians by these large corporations who have cornered most of their markets already, further crushing their smaller business competitors. Under the current party system that we allow to rule the roost, these local businesses are doubly penalised by the fact that they themselves cannot afford to use these offshore tax havens.
If we are to progress with prosperity, moving forward it is imperative these embedded loopholes are criminalised by independent people using their free thinking conscience and resources armed to match.
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