A PRIVATE MATTER?

Tax evasion...Here..I am shocked!

The latest tax evasion scandal to break from Panama should not really shock us.  The leaked files show how Mossack Fonseca clients were able to launder money, dodge sanctions and avoid tax. In one case, the company offered an American millionaire fake ownership records to hide money from the authorities. This is in direct breach of international regulations designed to stop money laundering and tax evasion. This is, so far, the biggest leak in history; it makes the data released by the Wikileaks organisation in 2010 pale into insignificance. Yet it reveals nothing new… save an abject failure of Westminster to do anything to deal with the problem of tax evasion.

Back in January 2016 it was the news that Google had done a deal with the Conservative Westminster government over it’s unpaid UK tax bill, something that might have been considered to be a step in the right direction.  Save for the fact that Google was no chain of high-street shops or a supermarket, but a global tech superpower with an annual turnover of close to £40bn with £4bn accrued in the UK. Compared to ordinary tax payers, they’ve got off lightly. Vast numbers of decent and conscientious tax payers and small businesses struggling with a mass of red tape will be understandably aggrieved at the Chancellor’s cosy deal with Google.

These commercial giants absolutely excel at avoiding tax; tax which should have been paid over many years. At best the donation of some  £130m in taxes from Google over the last ten years is merely a tokenistic gesture from a Government more concerned with luring multinationals than clamping down on tax avoidance. When multi-national companies avoid paying their fair share of tax, it simply means we end up with a bigger national deficit, a larger burden on hard working people who do pay their taxes and that we end up with less money to spend on our essentials, such as the NHS, schools and rubbish collections.

At a time when families are struggling with the cost of living, and local services are under pressure from government cuts, it is outrageous that multi-national companies and rich individuals are merely getting a slap on the wrist for not paying their taxes. This is nothing new, it’s been going on for years, the point scoring on the back of Osborne’s deal with Google simply means, that probably much to the quiet irritation of David Cameron, that tax evasion is back in the news.  

It may be a matter of semantics and legality when it comes to the differences between tax evasion from tax avoidance, one is a criminal act and one is permitted under the law.  It is a matter of public record that the current PM is against aggressive tax avoidance schemes. He has also been pretty forthright in stating that tax evasion is illegal, and that people can be prosecuted for that, and people can go to prison – so his relative silence and inaction on tax avoidance may be telling

It is also a matter of public record that the former Con Dem and current Conservative government’s are pursuing ideologically driven public sector spending cuts which have seriously cut staffing levels in HM revenue and Customs. The PM interestingly enough was firm enough when it came to rejecting calls for particular individuals to be stripped of public honours for wrong doing. From the perspective of the Westminster elite, if you started stripping individuals of titles and honours for wrong doings, who knows where it might end - even the possibility of former Conservative and former Labour and Lib Dem party donors ending up embarrassed.

Previously Westminster governments have been a little half-hearted when it comes to clamping down on tax avoidance or fiscal consolidation. The PM slagged off celebrities, for using a tax avoidance scheme in Jersey, a couple of years ago. Yet he remains very reluctant to deal the tax havens that just happen to be UK Crown Dependent territories.  Successive Labour and Tory governments have also turned a blind eye to this problem allowing the UK's tax gap to grow to an eye-watering £34 billion each year. 

Total fiscal consolidation over the course of the Parliamentary term (2010 – 2015) amounted to some £120 billion pounds, which may indicate the scale of the scandal. The last Labour UK Government (in 2005) merged Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise and then proceeded to cut a nearly a third of jobs in five years (99,000 to 68,000).   The party formerly known as New Labour also slashed the budget for tackling the tax gap by nearly 50% (£3.6bn to £1.9bn) between 2006-10.

Back in February 2015, it was a scandal that involved HSBC's Swiss accounts that made the news, the numbers were quite something:

·                106,000 clients with Swiss bank accounts

·                203 countries involved

·                $118bn total assets held in Swiss accounts

·                11,235 clients from Switzerland held $31.2 billion Dollars

·                9,187 clients from France held $12.5 billion Dollars

·                7,000 clients from UK held $21.7 billion Dollars

Source: ICIJ/Panorama

Now most reasonable people accept that there is a real need to deal on a global basis with the problem of off-shore companies and those individuals who are actively engaged in tax avoidance, tax evasion and / or money laundering. It’s all a little embarrassing as the problem is that the UK is at the heart of the problem and has chosen not to regulate its own crown dependencies let alone the periodically iffy, if not periodic criminal or questionable financial goings on in the City. 

The scale of the on-going off-shore tax avoidance problem may leave you breathless. The Cayman Islands were home to some 12,000 corporations yet have a resident population of 50,000. They were home to around 70% of the planets hedge funds (as of June 2012). The British Virgin Islands with a population of some 22,000 people just happens to be home to some 823,502 registered companies.

General Electric who paid no tax in 2010, made a $14.2 billion dollar profit. Barclay's had 181 subsidiaries (as of June 2012) registered in the Cayman Islands and paid little UK tax on its worldwide profits. News Corp managed to base 152 subsidiaries in tax havens across the planet (according to the US Government) and yet managed to pay no UK corporation tax between 1998 and 1999.

US President Obama was 100% right to suggest that the governments of the world should jointly tackle the issue of tax evasion and tax havens. By tackling the tax havens, the tax avoidance and the questionable dealings of the derivative traders, hedge funds and the off balance sheet trading then we might go so way towards dealing with the consequences of the worldwide financial crash. Yet that nice Mr Cameron and the other 18 millionaires in the cabinet (in 2015) pretty much stalled when it came to closing tax loopholes.

The scandal of HSBC’s Swiss accounts was but the tip of a large iceberg. The British Virgin island (BVI) incorporated over one million such offshore entities since it began marketing itself worldwide in the 1980s (with the convenient connivance of HM Government). Company owners' true identities are never revealed. Even the island's official financial regulators normally have no idea who is behind them. The British Foreign Office depends on the BVI's company licensing revenue to subsidise this residual outpost of empire, while lawyers and accountants in the City of London benefit from a lucrative trade as intermediaries, claiming that the tax-free offshore companies provide legitimate privacy.

In November 2012 a National Audit Office report noted that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) was struggling to curb aggressive tax avoidance schemes that were costing the UK billions of pounds in lost tax. No doubt much to the embarrassment of the then Con Dem Coalition Westminster Government, and the now Conservative Westminster Government , tax evasion and tax evaders and the hunt for their concealed cash remains a big issue in the USA.

In the UK the impression is that the Conservative Westminster government (and perhaps the Party formerly known as New Labour (less it’s current leader) sincerely hope that the issue of unpaid tax, will quietly go away. The US government remains actively committed to the pursuit of tax evaders, both foreign and domestic, yet relatively recently in the UK, the then Con Dem Government quietly reduced the number of staff in Revenue and Customs from around 100,000 to 65,000 and hoped to further reduce the numbers to around 50,000 by 2015.

The UK Government is quite honestly up to its neck in it when it comes to tax evasion; it’s heavily involved in aiding and abetting tax evasion worldwide. British Overseas territories, including the Cayman Islands, help to hide around trillions from pounds from the different nation’s tax authorities. Deep in the belly of the beast lies the City, which may explain Cameron’s reluctance to do anything about the problem as some of the city banks are hand in glove with drug dealers, dictators, rogue states and terrorists when it comes to money laundering and perhaps offers comfy lucrative seats on the board to former Westminster politicians.

Plaid Cymru will not compromise on its commitment to tackling tax evasion. Tax evasion, tax avoidance or fiscal consolidation has resulted in vast sums of money being squirrelled away. Plaid believes that taxes should be collected properly and invested in vital public services such as health and education. The Westminster based parties, perhaps seeking future post Westminster employment, may wish to appease the City bankers and their wealthy backers, but Plaid Cymru believes in putting Welsh communities first.

INACTION THIS DAY

Tax evasion and tax avoidance, at least outside of the UK, is rarely out of the headlines with  many heavily indebted governments keen to hunt down every tax dollar / euro / pound that is owed by tax evaders avoiding (unlike the rest of us) paying their fair dues to society. The Westminster elite privately at least regardless of whatever they say publically, appear to pay scant respect to the idea of fair taxation and fair representation, we may be pretty close to being governed by the sons of bankers and the sons of the City.

The UK Government is in up to its neck when it comes to tax evasion, it’s heavily involved in aiding and abetting tax evasion worldwide. British Overseas territories, including the Cayman Islands, help to hide around trillions from pounds from the different nation’s tax authorities. In the belly of the beast lies the City, which may explain Cameron’s reluctance to do anything about the problem as some of the city banks are hand in glove with drug dealers, dictators, rogue states and terrorists when it comes to money laundering and may perhaps also offer comfy lucrative seats on the board to former Westminster politicians further down the line.

Back in April 2013  the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists [ICIJ] based in Washington DC, began in collaboration with international media, publishing  results into their research into tax evasion and off-shore tax havens. The journalists sifted through an electronic mountain of information - literally  millions of records leaked from Britain's offshore financial industry, exposing for the first time the identities of thousands of holders of anonymous wealth from around the world.

The leak of some 2 million emails and other documents, mostly from the British Virgin Islands (BVI), exposed the scale of the offshore tax evasion trade and the identities of tax evaders. It has been estimated that wealthy individuals involved in tax evasion and tax avoidance could potentially have as much as $ 32 trillion dollars (£ 21 trillion pounds) stashed in overseas and off-shore tax havens. The scale of this problem is staggering, if the pot were to be equally divided up then it could be parceled out as around $3000 dollars for every living person on our planet.

No while there is nothing wrong with a company being based in a tax haven does not necessarily mean that a company is avoiding tax or taking advantage of the hitherto pretty impenetrable secrecy that tends to surround tax havens, even if the tax jurisdictions are closely associated with tax evasion. That said, tax havens tend to be masked by secrecy and low taxes, and there have been few attempts to identify them. UK Revenue and Customs does not provide a list of tax havens.

The Con Dem Westminster coalition government at best can be said to have demonstrated a half-heartedly highlighted reluctance to clamp down on tax avoidance. The PM might have publically slagged off a few celebrities, for using a tax avoidance scheme in Jersey but he still appears to be acutely reluctant to deal the tax havens that happen to be UK Crown Dependent territories.  

Most reasonable people accept that there is a real need to deal on a global basis with the problem of off-shore companies and those individuals who are actively engaged in tax avoidance, tax evasion and / or money laundering. The focus on tax havens and tax avoidance is a bit embarrassing as the UK sits at the heart of the problem having consciously chosen not to regulate its own financially useful crown dependent  dependencies and territories.

The scale of the off-shore problem may take your breath away. The Cayman Islands; currently home to some 12,000 corporations has a population of 50,000, yet is home to 70% of the planets hedge funds (as of June 2012). The British Virgin Islands (population 22,000) is home to 823,502 registered companies. General Electric paid no tax in 2010, made a $14.2 billion dollar profit. Barclay's (as of June 2012) had 181 subsidiaries registered in the Cayman Islands and paid little UK tax on its worldwide profits.

The Dirty Digger's News Corp oddly enough managed to base 152 subsidiaries in tax havens across the planet (and that’s according to the US Government) and yet managed to pay no UK corporation tax between 1998 and 1999. US President Obama was 100% right to suggest that the governments of the world should jointly tackle the issue of tax evasion and tax havens. By tackling the tax havens, the tax avoidance and the questionable dealings of the derivative traders, hedge funds and the off balance sheet trading then we might go so way towards dealing with the consequences of the worldwide financial crash. Yet Mr Cameron and the other 18 millionaires in the cabinet have been stalling when it comes to closing  the tax loopholes.

The BVI has incorporated more than a million such offshore entities since it began marketing itself worldwide in the 1980s. Company owners' true identities are never revealed. Even the island's official financial regulators normally have no idea who is behind them. The British Foreign Office depends on the BVI's company licensing revenue to subsidise this residual outpost of empire, while lawyers and accountants in the City of London benefit from a lucrative trade as intermediaries, claiming that the tax-free offshore companies provide legitimate privacy.

In November 2012 a National Audit Office report revealed that of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is struggling to curb aggressive tax avoidance schemes is costing the UK billions of pounds in lost tax. Much to the embarrassment of the Con Dems, tax evasion and tax evaders and the hunt for their concealed cash remains a big issue in the USA, in the UK the impression given is that the Conservative dominated Con Dem Westminster coalition government simply hopes that if we don’t talk about the problem then perhaps the problem will go away.

Across the other side of the pond, the US government’s pursuit of tax evaders led indirectly to the closure of Switzerland's oldest bank, after pleading guilty in a New York court to helping US citizens evade paying their taxes. This was the first foreign bank to plead guilty to tax evasion charges in the USA. Rather rapidly other Swiss banks have taken steps to prevent US citizens from opening offshore accounts to avoid paying tax.

Here in the UK, as part of the public sector budget cuts, the Con Dem Government has reduced the number of staff in Revenue and Customs from around 100,000 to 65,000 and intends to further reduce the numbers to around 50,000 by 2015. So much for taking tax evasion and tax avoidance seriously and ensuring that we pay our fairshare of tax. The problem lies with the so called Westminster elite and their cronies in the City rather than with the ordinary people, few of whom were directly responsible for causing the financial crash in the first place, perhaps we are not all in it together after all.  

THE POOR BORROW...

Well before the financial collapse, the party formerly known as New Labour (under Blair) signed up to and embraced the agenda of neo liberal capitalism and made its own. Basically neo liberal capitalism aims to restructure government institutions and regulatory bodies so that they embody the logic of the market and see their primary objective as the creation and policing of conditions for the competitive operation of essentially private markets.

The only real spat that New Labour had with George Bush, was when he brought in protective tariffs for the US Steel industry something that would had directly impacted on some of New Labour’s wealthy comrades in arms and fellow travellers. One result of this neo liberal capitalism was that most states in the world ended up with fatally weak redistributive mechanisms, weak financial regulation and a culture of excessive overpayment within banking and financial operations.

In developing countries like China, India and Brazil led to an increase in investors who were seeking opportunities to invest outside of their economies. The US and other financial systems had been deregulated (in the 1980’s); this allowed a virtual explosion of new financial packages to attract internal and overseas investors. The key problem with this was that these new financial packages basically repackaged risk, and sold in a way that much of the risk was pretty much hidden from investors.

One of the largely overlooked side-effects or consequences of the effective abandonment of financial regulation was the explosive growth of investments that aimed to make money out of money which had little or no link to the productive economy. It has been estimated that around 90% of financial transactions had little to do with generating goods, products and services and actual jobs.

What made things worse (potentially) was that even the ratings agencies themselves failed to understand the potential risks that were involved in this process, so the investors stood little change on their own, and a potential financial disaster loomed. The final problem came when the US home mortgage bubble, which had been aggravated by deregulation, was fed by a rapid unsustainable growth in home purchases inside the USA (simular events took place simultaneously in Ireland, Spain and elsewhere).

This led to a growth of debt and decline in savings. When property prices crashed, homeowners were unable to borrow more money against the value of their properties to pay of their debts. The property collapse hit the securities market, which had grown massively on top of home mortgages, as a result some serious financial players, went bust or were propped up by governments using tax payers money.

As a result of the financial collapse is that those institutions that have survived have effectively become risk averse and won’t lend funds to existing or new businesses, thus making the recession worse.  What may make things worse for all of us is that all of the Westminster focused political parties have bought into the free market driven economy, which was largely a product (in the UK) of the experience of the winter of discontent (1978 – 1979).

Even though a largely unregulated banking activities brought us the world wide recession / depression there is little talk of effective financial regulation and no assertively expressed alternatives to it. The Westminster elites abject surrender to the City’s money men leaves the most vulnerable in our society at the mercy of the free market, over the twenty years before the crash the rich have got richer (and have continued to do so) and the lower paid have been left with little option but to borrow.

MAGIC MOMENTS

Prime Minister David Cameron’s criticism of some of the tax arrangements of some of the rich and shameless as "morally wrong" certainly caught the headlines. Perhaps it can be put down (from a Conservative perspective) to the PM going off on one again. it was certainly a bizarre ‘Conservative’ moment - what’s next Japanese whalers endorsing the virtues of Greenpeace? Certainly from where I have been sat, this side of the bridge, ‘Conservative’ and ‘tax evasion’ have been happily juxtaposed for many years in the public perception.

I noticed that David Cameron appears to have rapidly clammed up, after his unexpected outburst. Perhaps he is now engaged in managed withdrawal (aka ‘retreat’) following his condemnation of celebrity tax avoiders yesterday, no doubt after less than coded warnings from Tory donors that his attacks on Jimmy Carr could open a world of tax avoidance related hurt.

After further thought DC may have decided to cut his losses and keep his head down, certainly the PM has declined to criticise the tax affairs of Take That star Gary Barlow (a recent recipient of a gong), happens to possibly involved in a similar tax evasion scheme to the one Carr used to cut his liabilities. No doubt some pretty senior Tories are fearful that Cameron’s comments could lead to an unwelcome media spotlight on the tax affairs of senior party donors and government (and not doubt former New Labour) ministers.

The Daily Telegraph (no great lover of Cameron admittedly) says that DC under mounting pressure to pay back cheap loans of £1.2 million to the Conservative Party from companies registered in tax havens before the last election. One £250,000 loan apparently came from Juniper Trading (which is registered in the British Virgin Islands). It was given in 2004 at 0.25 per cent below the base rate, to be repaid in 2029. Another £950,000 loan was apparently made by the Medlina Foundation, (based in Liechtenstein), at the base rate plus 1 per cent in the same year. Oops!

Now it does seem a bit rich for the Conservative Party to be taking advantage of loans from offshore firms, while the PM slags of celebrities, for using a tax avoidance scheme in Jersey. Most reasonable people accept (by now) that there is a real need to deal on a global basis with the problem of off-shore companies and those individuals who are actively engaged in tax avoidance, tax evasion and / or money laundering. The problem is that the UK is at the heart of the problem as it has consciously chosen not to regulate some of its crown dependencies.

The scale of the off-shore problem takes your breath away. The Cayman Islands; are currently home to some 12,000 corporations and have a population of 50,000, yet are home to 70% of the planets hedge funds. The British Virgin Islands (population 22,000) is home to 823,502 registered companies. General Electric paid no tax in 2010, yet made a $14.2 billion dollar profit. Barclay's has 181 subsidiaries registered in the Cayman Islands and paid little UK tax on its worldwide profits. The Dirty Digger's News Corp has 152 subsidiaries in tax havens across the planet (according to the US Government) and paid no UK corporation tax between 1998 and 1999.

US President Obama was absolutely right to suggest that the governments of the world should jointly tackle the issue of tax evasion and tax havens. The US President was spot on, if we actually tackled the tax havens, the tax avoidance and the questionable dealings of the derivative traders, hedge funds and the off balance sheet trading then we might go so way towards dealing with the consequences of the worldwide financial crash. I suspect that rhetoric aside hell might have a better chance of freezing over before that nice Mr Cameron and the other 18 millionaires in the cabinet actually do anything to close the tax loopholes – were that to happen then perhaps we would all be in it together?

ALL IN IT TOGETHER?

Plaid Cymru's Treasury spokesperson Jonathan Edwards MP has repeated calls for greater responsibility within the financial sector as a report is published showing the bosses of FTSE 100 companies enjoyed an average 12% rise in their take-home pay last year.

Mr Edwards, who has consistently maintained that curbing executive pay and reforming the banking system are key to economic recovery, insists that the Coalition government must shrug off its complacency towards big bonuses and put the interests of the real economy ahead of the City elite.

Responding to the survey conducted by Manifest/MM&K, Mr Edwards said:

"In recent years, the financial sector in Britain has created an unacceptable culture of rewarding failure and neglecting responsibility.

"The Coalition government is also complicit in this negligence. While ordinary people are feeling the squeeze, those earning more than £3,000 a week are enjoying tax cuts introduced by the Chancellor's latest Budget.

"Plaid Cymru have always maintained that big bonuses must curbed if we are to tackle the UK's widening wealth gap - the largest in Europe - brought about by the Coalition's complacency and the previous Labour government's lethargic approach to financial management.

"Only yesterday (Monday), we warned that the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill currently going through Parliament, could become a 'Bad Bosses' Charter' if it limits employee rights, and lacks strength in sections which deal with directors' pay and bonuses.

"Plaid Cymru would look to address the weakness of certain sections of the Bill through introducing a maximum wage and allowing employees' representatives to be included remuneration committees.

"These latest statistics serve as a reminder of who's really 'in it together'. While the majority of the population are dealing with soaring food and fuel prices, the FTSE 100 bosses are benefiting from soaring salaries.

"We should be asking serious questions about what sort of society we want to create as a result of the recession. A return to business as usual for the economic elite favoured by the Labour-Tory tag team is not acceptable.

"The UK Government needs to curb executive pay and reform the banking system so that it works in the interests of the real economy rather than a self-serving cash machine for bankers and others.”

PASTIES, PETROL CANS AND PANIC

In many ways watching the growing pasty and petrol related crisis develop over the last few days has been a bit like watching a car accident in slow motion. Cameron's ill-thought out suggestion that everyone top up their tanks provoked a run of fuel and drained petrol stations and all this at least a week in advance of any potential strike by tanker drivers.

Clueless?

Pastygate, as it has been dubbed, which involves the introduction of vat on pies and pasties amongst other things, in the budget last Monday. If it does nothing else has clearly shown most people how entirely cut off from ordinary people this Con Dem government is, despite Cameron's publicly stated love of pasties.

Incidentally for the record while not averse to the odd pasty my personal preference is for oggies. That aside I suspect that this fiasco could partially be put down to the loss of Andy Coulson, who if nothing else may have given Cameron and Osborne a faint understanding of how the rest of us live and think.

If you had thought that it had become slightly surreal when Francis Maude (currently a Cabinet Office Minister) suggested motorists might store petrol at home in "jerry can" as well as topping up their tanks – which no doubt helped to feed the panic buying frenzy in some areas and as you can imagine did not go down particularly well with the Fire Brigade.

No Petrol

Incidentally the Retail Motor Industry Federation said that petrol sales rose by 45% and diesel was up 20% amid talk of a strike bringing disruption to forecourt supplies on Tuesday.

Then the footage of the chancellor struggling to remember when he last bought a pasty from Greggs, or perhaps quite exactly who was this Gregg is or what he does was pretty tortuous. As no doubt will be the argument about whether you can eat them tax free if they're served cold.

Who's Greg?

The chancellors memory problems may pale into insignificance when compared no doubt to Cameron's future loss of memory when it comes to any questions in relation to what exactly you get for a quarter of a million pounds donation to the Conservative Party apart from a place at a dinner (sorry donor) party with the Camerons. Part of the problem with the Pastygate problem is that it shines a light on the current Cabinet which is largely if not exclusively made up from the ranks of the wealthy.

Twenty nine ministers are entitled to attend regular Cabinet meetings, of those some twenty three have investments and assets that are estimated to be personally worth more than £1 million each. Dave and his ilk (including formerly New Labour’s Milliband) can claim to chomp as many pasties as he likes but that chasm is one between the elite and the voters that will never be bridged.

CAMERON'S CASABLANCA MOMENT...

PM David Cameron

I'm shocked, shocked to find that tax evasion is going on in here!

News that Barclays Bank has been ordered by the Treasury to pay half-a-billion pounds in tax it tried to avoid paying will be welcomed by many of us. The bank was accused by HM Revenue and Customs of designing and using two schemes that were intended to avoid substantial amounts of tax. The Con Dem Government has taken the unusual step of rapidly introducing retrospective legislation to end such "aggressive tax avoidance" by financial institutions. Apparently the authorities were alerted to the loopholes in the law by Barclays itself. The bank, which has not been named officially by the government, but named by the Daily Telegraph and the BBC) is the target of HMRC's crackdown. The Con Dem Government has closed the schemes to retrieve £500m of lost tax and safeguard payments of billions of more tax in the future. The Daily Telegraph understands that other major banks also tried to use the same schemes to avoid paying a total of £500m in tax. While its makes a pleasant change, I don’t think that this is an attempt to ensure that we are all in it together, merely a consequence of some pretty blatant and in your face tax evasion that even the Con Dems could not ignore it...

ALL IN IT TOGETHER...

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has rightly criticised "cosy" deals between HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and big businesses over the way they settle their tax bills. Serious concerns have been expressed by MP’s about just exactly how some of the large tax settlements were reached. MPs believe that potentially there may be some £25 billion pounds worth of outstanding tax issues with some of the UK’s largest companies and they want HMRC to be much more open about its dealing with large firms.

Not surprisingly HMRC has said that the MPs had misunderstood the facts. If the MPs are correct and I see no reason why they should not be as whistle-blower from inside HMRC passed them some interesting information (according to Radio 4 on Tuesday morning). Perhaps they should do some digging to find out how many former HMRC employees have moved to potentially lucrative employment in the private sector.

Coincidentally the tax campaign group UK Uncut is taking HMRC to the High Court (today - Thursday 22nd December) to seek a judicial review to try to get them to reclaim millions of pounds in uncollected tax from Goldman Sachs. It's all a little awkward for David (‘Call me Dave’) Cameron as it either touched a raw nerve or at least exposed the lie at the heart of his much trumpeted “We are all in it together” – apparently not!

NOT ON OUR BEHALF...

So David Cameron is to travel to Brussels for a major EU summit on the eurozone debt crisis. Both Germany and France are keen to have a new EU treaty which would include measures to stop a repeat of the problems threatening the euro's future. Cameron is under increasing pressure from the anti-Europe wing of Tory MPs who want him to resist moves to strengthen the power of Brussels over EU members.

The PM has pledged to stand up for Britain, he will display some of the tenacious bulldog spirit, etc. Some old same old you might think, but there is more to this than meets the eye. Not quite, in a joint letter, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have called for the 17 eurozone countries to have common corporation and financial transaction taxes.

This is something Cameron (“the bankers friend”) is obviously set dead against. Cameron has cleverly hidden the real reason, why and on whose behalf he is actually going to the Brussels summit for, by playing the Tory patriotic card, saying he would fight for the UK national interest in any EU Treaty talks.

Cameron's real concern is the issue of corporation tax and the proposed financial transaction tax – something that could seriously hinder the effective money laundering that goes on in the City of London. The last thing Cameron wants is any bright light shone on the questionable financial practices that operate in and around the City of London. Cameron will be busy in Brussels acting on the banker's and the tax evaders behalf not on behalf of the inhabitants of these islands.

Interestingly enough, the previous New Labour government made much of its light financial regulatory touch, at least until the wheels came spectacularly off the wagon. It's a tad difficult for the Con Dems to make anything positive out of their refusal to take any action over banking regulation (at least until 2019). In the wake of the banking collapse and at a time of real financial austerity when we are all supposed to be in it together, this is pretty rich.

There is a real need to deal on a global basis with the problem of off-shore companies and those individuals who are actively engaged in tax avoidance, tax evasion and / or money laundering. The European transaction tax initiative favoured by France and Germany is long overdue and a small step in the right direction.

What a surprise! it turns out that the UK is at the heart of this problem as it has consciously chosen not to regulate some of its crown dependencies. The scale of the off-shore problem can take your breath away. The Cayman Islands; are currently home to some 12,000 corporations and have a population of 50,000, yet are home to 70% of the planets hedge funds.

The British Virgin Islands (population 22,000) is home to 823,502 registered companies. General Electric paid no tax in 2010, yet made a $14.2 billion dollar profit. Barclay's has 181 subsidiaries registered in the Cayman Islands and paid little UK tax on its worldwide profits. The Dirty Digger's News Corp has 152 subsidiaries in tax havens across the planet (according to the US Government) and paid no UK corporation tax between 1998 and 1999.

So much for all being in it together, if developed countries exchequers lose out then it's significantly worse for developing and underdeveloped countries. Tax dodging costs developing countries around $160 billion dollars per year (Christian Aid). Around $ 1.2 trillion dollars was illicitly removed from poor countries in 2008 (US Integrity Research Centre).

President Obama rightly suggested that the governments of the world actually got together to tackle the issue of tax evasion and tax havens. The US President was entirely correct, if we actually tackled the tax havens, the tax avoidance and the questionable dealings of the derivative traders, hedge funds and the off balance sheet trading then we might go so way towards dealing with the consequences of the worldwide financial crash.

There again, perhaps if that nice Mr Cameron and the other 18 millionaires in the cabinet were to work with other governments worldwide to close the tax loopholes then perhaps we truly would all be in it together? Perhaps not! So over the next few days when Dave (and no doubt the Daily Mail) makes much of standing up for Britain in the Brussels summit its worth remembering that he is actually there on the bankers behalf not ours.