Death and

taxes:
the true toll of
tax dodging
A Christian Aid report
May 2008
  Death and taxes

Contents Introduction

Introduction 1 At a time of switchback stockmarkets and fears of global meltdown,

Stripping the riches 4
Tanzania: the sharp end of the panga 10
the world economy in 2008 is an uncertain and nervous place. Will
Malawi: the way forward? 17 more banks collapse? Will the housing market crash? Can recession, or
The secret shore 19 depression, be avoided?
The haven experts 26
India: tax-break winners and losers 31 In the world’s poorest countries, the concerns are less about lifestyle
Why paying tax is good for you 38
Peru and Bolivia: a tale of two tax systems 42
and more about life and death. What will be the impact on growth in
Recommendations 48 developing economies? Will the hope of a better, and longer, life for poor
Technical appendix 51 people be negated?
Endnotes 57
This debate is increasingly focused on the progress, or otherwise,
towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United
Nations, which aim to halve world poverty by 2015. How will the money
now be found to realise this ambition?

Christian Aid has concluded that the necessary money, and more,
is already available – if only those who owe it would pay up. We are
talking about tax. This report seeks to expose the scandal of a global
taxation system that allows the world’s richest to duck their
responsibilities while condemning the poorest to stunted development,
even premature death.

This is in part to do with super-rich individuals. It is also to do with

governments, including the UK government, who have let this situation
develop and persist. But it is mostly about the world’s transnational
corporations wielding their enormous power to avoid the attentions of
the tax man – with devastating results.

The situation is stark and urgent. We predict that illegal, trade-related

tax evasion alone will be responsible for some 5.6 million deaths of
young children in the developing world between 2000 and 2015. That is
almost 1,000 a day. Half are already dead.
Front cover: work in the depths of the Geita gold mine,Tanzania
Front-cover photo: Evelyn Hockstein
 Death and taxes Introduction  Death and taxes Introduction

Tax and tax havens received much attention in the early months for example, the same proportion of tax revenues were spent The case studies in this report show the different impacts world. Its latest accounts show that it made worldwide pre-tax
of 2008. Stories of German bankers salting away cash in on healthcare in these countries as has been since 2000, then that tax dodging by companies can have. In Zambia and profits of £365m, and yet paid no tax either in Britain or abroad.
Liechtenstein, HM Revenue and Customs pursuing bank the lives of 350,000 children under the age of five would be Tanzania, we show how poor deals in the past on copper and Many of its 78 subsidiaries are based in tax havens such as
accounts in Jersey and UK ‘non doms’ crying foul at having to saved every year – including 250,000 babies (see Technical gold respectively have left these countries’ exchequers unable Mauritius, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands.
pay anything, all bubbled away in the media. appendix page 51). to capitalise on the recent huge surges in commodity prices. Yet Indeed, it can be seen that UK taxpayers are effectively
Such scrutiny is long overdue. But it doesn’t even scratch the Between 2000, when the MDGs were set, and 2015 when when they have tried to renegotiate, they find themselves subsidising company profits through the aid budget. Companies
surface of an international industry that has grown up specifically they are supposed to be realised, the amount lost by these two threatened with legal action. A more robust negotiating stance use their muscle to get the best tax deals possible in developing
to maximise ‘tax efficiency’ or, in other words, to deny sovereign specific methods will total US$2.5 trillion. Taking into account in Malawi illustrates how better deals can be reached. countries, in some cases with diplomatic pressure from their
governments their income. For governments in the developing additional sums from aggressive tax avoidance and other forms In India, the government is giving some of that country’s home countries, including the UK. These same governments
world, this amounts to being robbed of their ability to improve of trade abuse, the total loss is likely to be several times that biggest and richest companies a tax-free ride under the then pour tens of millions of pounds of aid into the same
their economies and the lives of their poorest people. amount. programme of Special Economic Zones, which were designed countries to support basic services.
It is important to clarify what we are talking about here. Most Our figures are derived from the work of Raymond Baker, a to bring more foreign investment into the country. Meanwhile, Christian Aid is not suggesting that DFID should be cutting
people in Britain, for instance, engage in some level of ‘tax senior fellow at the US Center for International Policy. To arrive at these developments are displacing tens of thousands of poor back on its aid budget. Quite the opposite. But this money
planning’ – be that claiming their various allowances or investing his findings on transfer mispricing, he and his researchers people – thrown off their land with scant compensation and would surely be better used to target the poorest and most
in a tax-free ISA. This activity is entirely legitimate in that it is conducted 550 interviews with heads of trading companies in denied the opportunity even to grow their own food. Life for marginalised people, with the basics of state provision financed
enacting the intentions of relevant legislation. 11 countries – all on condition of anonymity. them is getting worse, not better. by in-country taxation.
Then there is the huge grey area of ‘tax avoidance’, which is Baker sees corporate tax evasion as part of a global process Rapid economic growth in Peru is also failing to deliver The government of Ireland has in recent years laudably
legal but has, we maintain, a sliding scale of legitimacy. In the by which the wealth of the developing world is being steadily benefits for that country’s poor people. Preferential tax rates for increased its aid budget. Yet at the same time it has adopted
corporate world, avoidance often involves the use of tax havens shifted to the world’s richest countries. He condemns this as asparagus producers, supplying most of the UK’s consumption, many of the characteristics of a tax haven, thus helping to
to shelter and boost profits. This gets increasingly aggressive as ‘the ugliest chapter in global economic affairs since slavery’. join those already enjoyed by mining companies. In Bolivia, on facilitate tax losses in developing countries.
ever more ingenious and complex instruments are peddled by The World Bank estimates that it would cost US$40-60bn a the other hand, raised royalty rates on gas extraction have There is much to do if the pernicious global tax system is to
the tax industry, with the sole purpose of getting around laws year to reach all of the UN’s MDGs, providing that policies and enabled better healthcare and care for the elderly. be made to work for the world’s poor people, not just the rich.
and regulations. Some idea of the size of this activity can be institutions are improved in the developing world. If the missing Britain has a particular responsibility in this situation. Of the 72 But there is a lot that can be done. Christian Aid calls on the UK
grasped by considering an astonishing fact: a full 50 per cent of tax identified here were paid, there would be enough cash to tax havens that exist as homes for fugitive money, no fewer than and Irish governments to join together in taking a lead in
world trade is reported to take place through tax havens. meet this bill several times over. 30 are in Commonwealth countries and Crown Dependencies. reforming this system and in questioning the assumptions on
The secrecy underpinning this system can also enable illegal This report examines the different methods, licit and illicit, Even in the financial hub of the City of London, a range of which it is based. Primarily, they should support international
activity on the part of criminal individuals and corporations – ‘tax through which transnational corporations and other businesses international initiatives to increase transparency of transactions moves to curtail and regulate the secrecy of tax havens, thereby
evasion’. Our figures deal with just two of the most common dodge tax in order to pay as little as possible. Lost tax revenue has been routinely resisted. The International Monetary Fund lifting the lid on the tax industry and its machinations.
forms of corporate evasion. The first of these is known as affects all countries, rich and poor, but the impact on the recently identified the UK itself as a tax haven. A common accounting standard should be promoted, to
‘transfer mispricing’, where different parts of the companies sell developing world is demonstrably much greater. Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, has consistently make the hiding of profits impossible by requiring companies to
goods or services to each other at manipulated prices. Again, We look at the tax havens where the missing money goes, championed increases in aid to the developing world. He is report what they do on a country-by-country basis. The creative
the potential scope of this practice can be seen from the examining their history and the attractions they offer – committed to the UK reaching one important MDG – that of abuse of the tax system by accountants, lawyers and bankers
staggering fact that some 60 per cent of all world trade is now paramount among which is trading secrecy. We ask how devoting 0.7 per cent of the country’s GDP to aid – two years should also be challenged. This should be preceded by a
thought to take place between global corporations and their industrialised countries with their much-vaunted regard for the early. We applaud this effort, and will be supporting the thorough assessment of the scale of illicit capital flows, in
subsidiaries. The other, ‘false invoicing’, is where similar rule of law can have connived in the creation of a fiscal system government to push other nations to fulfil their commitments. particular tax evasion, facilitated by banks and corporations
transactions take place between unrelated companies. so open to serious abuse? But we also urge Mr Brown to look at another huge, and operating through the City of London or Dublin. Once identified,
We calculate, from just these two activities, that the loss of And we look at the facilitators – including the giant untapped, source of funds – the tax that companies are artfully illicit wealth from the developing world must be repatriated.
corporate taxes to the developing world is currently running at accountancy firms such as KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, avoiding paying around the world. Mr Brown has recruited some The stakes could not be higher. Again, 1,000 children a day
US$160bn a year (£80bn). That is more than one-and-a-half Ernst & Young and Deloitte – who specialise in exploiting the very high-profile corporations to help him in his quest to realise are currently dying in the developing world – denied basic
times the combined aid budgets of the whole rich world – existence of havens to minimise the tax liability of their clients, the other MDGs. Some of the same companies are named in healthcare because their governments in turn are denied their
US$103.7bn in 2007. impervious to the social consequences. All of these ‘big four’ this report for serial tax dodging. rightful revenues by illegal tax evasion. The full, shameful, picture
We are not suggesting that all of this money would be firms have in recent years paid massive sums to settle The case of CDC plc, formally the Commonwealth undoubtedly encompasses millions more.
channelled to priority areas such as health and education. Even allegations of lawbreaking or the breaching of financial Development Corporation, is instructive. This company, owned Secrecy can be used as an excuse for inaction. If we don’t
at current rates of expenditure, however, the lives and prospects regulations. And yet they retain their status as the auditors of by the Department for International Development (DFID), was know about something, how can we do anything about it? But
for poor people in the developing world could be transformed. If, the world’s financial system. set up to channel taxpayers’ money to projects in the developing now we do know. So no more secrecy. And no more excuses.
 Death and taxes  Death and taxes Stripping the riches

‘Currently there is both an agency problem – ministerial corruption

– and an information asymmetry: companies know better than
governments what rights are worth. The consequences are often
grotesque… In 2006 the Democratic Republic of Congo received a
mere US$86,000 from mineral rights.’
Paul Collier, professor of economics, Oxford University, and Michael Spence, 2001 Nobel Laureate in economics

Stripping the riches The past decade has seen record prices for commodities
caused by rampant demand from fast-growing economies such
as China and India.1 The boom should herald a great future
has estimated that the cost to the developing world in lost tax
revenue of just two forms of tax evasion – mispricing transfers
and false invoicing – amounts to US$160bn a year. In one year
for resource-rich developing countries. They own much of alone that money at current spending patterns in poor countries
the copper, nickel, platinum and iron ore on which the could save the lives of 350,000 children under five, 250,000 of
new economic power houses of the twenty-first century are them babies.
being built.
They also own large reserves of gold, that most precious Extracting the cash
of commodities, which is now more valuable than ever as a There are numerous ways for the transnational corporations
bulwark against economic uncertainty and a source of jewellery (TNCs) and home-grown businesses in the developing world to
for the world’s newly emerging middle classes.2 avoid tax.
For decades it has been a common refrain that many Legitimate ways include:
developing economies, particularly in Africa, have been static, or • using tax-avoidance schemes
even in decline, since colonial times. Their problem is that while • demanding tax concessions
Gold bullion: a bulwark against financial insecurity, it’s also in they produce the raw materials, all the value-added processing • negotiating low royalty rates on output.
demand as jewellery for the world’s emerging middle classes.
takes place elsewhere. But with the price of nickel rising six fold Illicit ways of evading tax in countries of production, which
In March 2008 it reached a record price of US$1,000 an ounce
over the past 10 years,3 platinum five fold,4 copper quadrupling generally involve false accounting, include:
in value5 and iron ore6 and gold trebling7, surely things should • falsifying invoices
be changing? Aid donors could be forgiven for thinking that the • mispricing the transfer of goods and services
need for their help will soon start diminishing. • mispricing financial transfers
Surely the countries where the minerals are extracted are • illicit transfers of cash.
sharing in their value, not least through taxes and royalties on Even the legitimate methods, however, may not always be what
what is produced? Aren’t the proceeds from the boom enough they seem. Given the rewards to be made, particularly from
to give countries a chance to alleviate their poverty themselves extracting natural resources such as oil and gold, concessionary
– and invest in the future with well-funded health programmes rates might have been obtained by bribing corrupt ministers
and improved education systems? and officials. And some ostensibly legal tax-avoidance schemes
Unfortunately, the depressing truth is that there is nothing have, in recent years, been deemed by revenue authorities to
remotely resembling an economic bonanza in many of the amount to tax evasion, and are therefore illegal.
countries that should be benefiting from these soaring prices.
That is not because ravening dictators are siphoning off a How poor countries lose out
fortune while their people starve. Some corruption exists, but Many developing countries anxious to bring in big business
the greater culprits by far are those companies from wealthier to develop their natural resources have found themselves in a
countries that have been invited in to extract the minerals. ‘race to the bottom’ in terms of offering financial inducements.
By measures both legal and illegal, these companies have In virtually every sector where such countries need outside
too frequently shown themselves to have just one priority: help, be it mineral extraction, agriculture, manufacturing or even
taking as much wealth as possible from the countries where tourism, countries will compete with each other in offering to
they operate, while putting as little back in as possible by paying slash taxes, and royalty rates where appropriate, to win the
as few taxes as they can. necessary investment. In many cases, they see scant return
Their defence is that they have a duty to ensure a maximum for their efforts.
return for their owners and shareholders. This may well be George Soros, the global financier and philanthropist,
justifiable for the legal means used to increase returns but when helps fund the Revenue Watch Institute, which promotes ‘the
measured against the suffering they ignore in the process, responsible management of oil, gas and mineral resources
Louie Psihoyos/CORBIS

that reasoning amounts to a new colonialism. Illegal means for the public good’. He identifies three key problems facing
of increasing returns, however, cannot ever be justified in this resource-rich developing countries.
way as no company is required to operate illegally. Christian Aid These he calls ‘asymmetric information’, ‘asymmetric
 Death and taxes Stripping the riches  Death and taxes Stripping the riches

bargaining power’ and ‘asymmetric agency’. 8 They are ownership of natural resources is an attribute of sovereignty.This ‘withholding taxes’ when they are used), capital gains tax and Royalties
common across the board, from tourism to agriculture, from sovereignty, according to modern political theory, belongs to the VAT. But once again, these are often greatly reduced, or waived Royalties are payments to governments of a fixed percentage
telecommunications to consumer goods. In all cases, the people. Government ministers and officials therefore negotiate altogether, as an incentive to companies to invest. of whatever is being extracted. An International Monetary Fund
power lies with the rich countries and the poor pay the price. It with foreign oil and mining companies as ‘agents’ of the people, The practice of offering tax breaks, however, is now under (IMF) survey in 2001 found royalty rates vary from 2 to 30 per
is in the industries extracting oil and minerals, however, that the while the managers of the companies act as ‘agents’ of the attack as economically unviable. Research has shown that cent, with most between 5 and 10 per cent.16
asymmetry is perhaps most clearly defined. owners and shareholders. If the ministers and officials accept lost revenue exceeded the benefits of increased investment, IMF and World Bank pressure on Zambia to privatise its
‘Asymmetric information’ occurs when TNCs with platoons bribes, however, they clearly abandon any pretence of acting for international tax expert Susan Himes, a consultant to the copper-mining industry at the end of the 1990s led to the setting
of lawyers, accountants and other experts arrive in a country to the people. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development of what is believed to be one of the lowest royalty rates ever
negotiate the tax regime under which they will operate. In the ‘Asymmetric agency’ may also occur if international (OECD), told a conference in Ghana in February this year.15 charged: 0.6 per cent.17
extractive industries, such experts will in many cases know far institutions advising the governments of developing countries
more about the value of the resources under discussion than fail to act in the best interests of those countries.
the government selling them, and have long experience of In a 2006 World Bank study of mining royalties in developing
devising hugely complicated tax formulas to their advantage. countries financed by mining giant BHP Billiton, the governments
The country representatives they come up against will be that were surveyed overwhelmingly opted for royalties based on
unable to match their knowledge, not least because in many the quantity of ore mined. Mining investors, however, preferred
developing countries, those with the requisite ability will in all profit or income-based taxes arrived at after operating costs had Hard bargaining: Over the past year Levy Mwanawasa in early paltry copper royalty rate
likelihood be working in the private sector. been deducted. When the study was published it concluded that Zambia Christian Aid and its partner 2008 cancelled all tax would be eclipsed by an
‘Asymmetric information’ also refers to the fact that the taxing profits was the preferable option.12 A World Bank official organisations in Zambia concessions for the copper- iron-ore deal between the
citizens of resource-rich countries are frequently kept completely later said that the organisation did not see itself as duty-bound In the late 1990s, mines and have played a key role in mining companies in the Liberian government and
in the dark about the deals that their governments have struck to act solely in the interests of the developing countries. Its role smelters in the Zambian bringing these development country, saying they were Mittal Steel, at the time the
with TNCs. In Tanzania for instance, mineral development was to ensure a share-out of wealth between the companies copperbelt were losing agreements to light.They ‘unfair and unbalanced’, and world’s second-largest steel
agreements made with gold companies remain confidential. and the countries with resources, said the official. £500,000 a week after years show that the general royalty raised the royalty rate to 30 company.The company,
After one agreement was leaked to the press, Commissioner Paul Collier, a professor of economics at Oxford University, of underinvestment and low rate was set at 0.6 per cent per cent.20 He also announced owned by London-based
for Minerals Peter Kafumu warned that possession of the and Michael Spence, a 2001 Nobel Laureate in economics, have commodity prices. Burdened (with even that figure left that ‘windfall taxes’ would billionaire Lakshmi Mittal,
document was ‘illegal’.9 highlighted the problems resource-rich developing countries with a large international negotiable) rather than the be introduced as the price of who in 2004 spent more
In Gabon earlier this year the government temporarily face in negotiations. debt, Zambia was forced 3 per cent set in the 1995 copper rose. than £30m on his daughter’s
closed down 22 local non-governmental organisations (NGOs), ‘Currently there is both an agency problem – ministerial by international pressure Mines and Minerals Act.The Zambia’s mine-owning wedding, was able to retain
accusing them of interfering in politics after they issued a joint corruption – and an information asymmetry: companies know to privatise the mining agreements are binding for companies, which include complete freedom to set the
statement criticising the authorities on a range of issues from better than governments what rights are worth,’ they say. industry.18 up to 20 years. Canada’s First Quantum sales price of the ore – giving
spending to unemployment.10 One of their key concerns was ‘The consequences are often grotesque… In 2006 the Two London-based firms, The deal meant that in Minerals, Glencore it ultimate control over the
the secrecy surrounding a US$3bn iron-ore mining deal with Democratic Republic of Congo received a mere US$86,000 banker Rothschild and 2004 mining companies International – the firm amount of royalties due.
China’s state-owned National Machinery & Equipment Import from mineral rights.’13 international law firm Clifford contributed only about 12 founded by controversial The deal was signed with
& Export Corp in the Belinga mountains of the country’s remote Chance, parcelled the mining per cent of all corporate American commodity the national transitional
north-east province. Incentives and allowances works into seven separate tax revenues, though they trader Marc Rich – and government that had been
‘We demand immediate publication of the contract…This The most common form of direct taxation for companies is entities, which were then accounted for nearly 70 per Vedanta Resources – the established at the end of
way, Gabonese will know if their interests are being protected,’ corporate tax, paid as a percentage of profits. There is usually sold.The agreements with cent of export revenues. In UK-quoted mining firm run Liberia’s devastating civil
says Marc Ona Essangui, who heads a coalition of environmental a standard rate for all businesses, though companies operating the mines’ new owners, 2006, the Zambian exchequer by Indian billionaire Anil war, just three months before
groups. He told a news conference it was thought the Chinese in sectors such as mining and the oil industry are frequently which run to more than 20 received just £12m against Agarwal – rejected the new democratic elections.22
consortium had been exempted from all taxes for 25 years. 11 offered a wide range of incentives and allowances that reduce volumes, were negotiated by £2bn of copper production. arrangements.21 They want After an NGO revealed the
‘Asymmetric bargaining power’ today often involves TNCs their liability. the government over a three- Now, with copper the matter adjudicated by the contents of the deal in 2006,
threatening to take their business elsewhere unless the In Tanzania, for instance, two of the largest companies are year period with the aid of quadrupling in value to World Bank’s International however, a new, elected
operating terms offered by the host country are as advantageous reported to have inflated their losses for years to ensure they fell Clifford Chance, without the about £4,000 a tonne in Centre for Settlement of government insisted on a
as possible – a particularly acute threat in the mining industry outside the threshold (see story page 10).14 involvement of parliament, recent years, a newly elected Investor Disputes. revised contract.
before the commodity boom. Companies may also be subject to taxes on imports and trade unions or any of the Zambian government wants In 2005 it looked as
‘Asymmetric agency’, meanwhile, rests on the principle that exports, on dividends they pay to shareholders (known as affected communities.19 a better return. President though even Zambia’s
  Death and taxes Stripping the riches  Death and taxes Stripping the riches

‘All international oil companies have used kick-backs

since the first oil shock of the 1970s to guarantee the
companies’ access to oil.’
Testimony to French magistrates by the former Africa manager of Elf Aquitaine, André Tarallo

Tax avoidance and evasion Developing countries are particularly vulnerable to transfer Capital flight It often involvesTNCs ‘For the first time in the both instances, the difference
There are main two ways for a TNC – or an individual for that mispricing. Typically, they lack sufficient information from the seeking to evade taxes in 200-year run of the free- between the market price
matter – to get around paying tax. One is illegal – tax evasion parent company and the local company to be able to challenge The deprivation of rightful tax the developing world and market system, we have and the alleged prices paid
– and one legal – tax avoidance. Both often involve the the prices involved. It is notoriously hard, anyway, to establish revenues from developing to maximise profits for their built and expanded an entire was said to be the amount
manipulation of profits and revenues through tax havens, where what the arm’s-length price would be within the highly complex country governments is part shareholders.They may integrated global financial that those involved in the
little or no tax is required to be paid on monies held there. international production networks that exist today. of a wider phenomenon also want to recoup rapidly structure the basic purpose of transactions managed to take
Without facilitators in the developed world, those seeking Ironically, many companies that claim to be socially known as ‘capital flight’.This capital expenditure they have which is to shift money from out of Nigeria.
to avoid paying their dues in the developing world would be responsible find nothing wrong in the practice of transfer is where companies and incurred in a country they poor to rich,’ Baker says. In some cases, illicit
unable to operate. But there are plenty of people willing to mispricing, and appear wilfully blind to the fact that they are individuals illicitly export regard as politically unstable. Exporting a diamond worth transactions will be disguised
help: well-paid lawyers and accountants designing aggressive helping deprive the citizens of the countries they are operating enormous amounts of capital Other culprits include US$1,000 for US$100, for by being interwoven with
tax-avoidance strategies; bankers; and the administrators of tax in of revenues that could be used to build a future. that could otherwise be used business accomplices, example, includes a capital genuine transactions. In
havens where the proceeds can be hidden in complex offshore to stimulate these economies. and corrupt politicians and flight component of US$900, other, more blatant instances,
structures of trusts and front companies. Mispriced financial transfers Raymond Baker, a senior officials anxious to bank the which will then more often no transaction takes place
The main techniques of evading tax are well known but hard These involve exaggerating the costs entailed in intra-corporate fellow at the US Center for bribes they have taken in than not end up in an – the imported goods or
to prove. financial transactions in order to move capital around illicitly. International Policy and an offshore tax havens. offshore account belonging services that have been paid
This could, for instance, involve exaggerating the interest rates internationally respected Baker estimates that to the exporter once it has for simply fail to materialise.
Falsified invoicing payable on a loan from a parent to a subsidiary company. authority on money between US$1 trillion and been sold at the market price. As trade expands
Often those in the developing world who are importing goods laundering, calls it ‘the ugliest US$1.6 trillion of illicit money The quantity, quality or in services such as
will inflate the price they say they have to pay to the foreign Round-tripping chapter in global economic moves across borders grade of whatever is being management expertise,
supplier so that they can report lower profits and hence pay This practice involves local businesses taking advantage of affairs since slavery’.29 As annually. Of that, he says, traded may also be the problem has increased:
less tax. The reverse can also happen. A person exporting the tax breaks offered to foreigners in countries where the with slavery, it is the poor and half – some US$500bn to misreported to justify the unlike goods, which require
goods from a developing country will deliberately undervalue government is eager for foreign investment. They do this by vulnerable who suffer. US$800bn – comes out of movement of large amounts a customs or bill-of-loading
what is being sold, on paper at least, so that profits are once sending their own money offshore, either legally or, more Baker describes capital developing and transitional of money out of the record, services do not leave
again depleted. commonly, illegally, then bringing it back disguised as foreign flight as ‘the most damaging economies.31 Between 60 to developing country. An an equivalent paper trail.
Falsified invoicing is difficult to detect in official statistics, as investment, which then qualifies for preferential tax treatment. economic condition hurting 65 per cent of that money has invoice may state, for Services are intangible; it is
it is often based purely on verbal agreements between buyers In China, for instance, foreign investors enjoy low tax rates, the poor in developing and been moved to evade tax, instance, that a jewel-quality hard to assess their fair value.
and sellers, but it is widespread. It is estimated that around 45 favourable land-use rights and financial services from domestic transitional economies. criminal activity accounts diamond is an industrial Who can say whether or not
to 50 per cent of trade transactions in Latin America are falsely and foreign financial institutions, and superior property-rights It drains hard-currency for between 30 and 35 per cutting diamond to justify US$10,000 paid to a foreign
priced by an average of more than 10 per cent; while 60 per cent protection.25 Companies registered in the British Virgin Islands reserves, heightens inflation, cent, and bribery and theft a lower price per carat, or contractor for ‘engineering
of trade transactions in Africa are mispriced by an average of are among today’s biggest investors in China, with much of the reduces tax collection, by government officials, he conversely that 200 units consultancy services’ is a fair
more than 11 per cent.23 money believed to have originated from within China itself.26 worsens income gaps, estimates, another 3 per cent. of machinery have been price or not?
cancels investment, hurts Money removed to evade bought when the true figure In many cases, the removal
Transfer mispricing Bribery and kickbacks competition, and undermines tax through transfer is only 150. of capital can, in fact, only be
A transfer price is the price paid for an exchange of goods and Oil drilling and mining concessions have been most closely trade.’ He says it also ‘leads to mispricing and false Other reported examples identified through a thorough
services between related affiliates of the same TNC. In most associated with the payment of bribes to obtain advantageous shortened lives for millions invoicing alone, says Baker, have included a shipment transaction-by-transaction
instances this involves either the parent firm trading with a mineral development agreements.27 of people and deprived accounts conservatively for of cashew nuts from Nigeria analysis that is far beyond the
subsidiary, or two subsidiaries of the same TNC trading with ‘All international oil companies have used kick-backs since existences for billions more’.30 7 per cent of global trade that would usually have resources of most financial
each other. the first oil shock of the 1970s to guarantee the companies’ The flow of illicit money transactions each year.32 fetched nearly US$5 a kilo authorities.
As deals between related TNC affiliates account for 60 per access to oil.’ Testimony before French magistrates by the from developing countries, Christian Aid (seeTechnical being sold to the US for just
cent of global trade, there is ample scope for mispricing.24 Tax former Africa manager of Elf Aquitaine, André Tarallo. 28 says Baker, is based on appendix page 51) estimates under 50 US cents a kilo, and
authorities say for a transaction to be legitimate, an ‘arm’s- This often results in the citizens of poor countries ending shifting the wealth out of the that the amount of tax optic fibres needed to fuel
length principle’ should be followed by paying the open-market up with an unfair deal, and being under-compensated for the countries where 80 per cent revenue lost to developing Nigeria’s digital revolution
price. This requirement is often flouted, however, with removal of their finite natural resources. of the world’s population countries annually through being bought for US$1,372
transactions mispriced to enable the parent company to move live into countries where these two techniques per unit when at source the
money around to minimise tax. 20 per cent live. amounts to US$160bn. cost was precisely US$6.33 In
10 Death and taxes 11 Death and taxes Tanzania: the sharp end of the panga

‘We hear every day that there is no money for development projects,
for building schools and dispensaries. Yet people hear of billions
of shillings lost in tax revenue... How do we explain this to people
who we tell there is no money for basic services?’
John Cheyo, chairman, Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, Tanzania
1

Tanzania: the sharp Tanzania is one of the fastest-emerging gold producers in Africa.
It is thought to have the continent’s largest gold reserves after
reportedly minimised their tax liability by inflating their losses.2
Geita, in the heart of Tanzania’s mining region, illustrates the

end of the panga

South Africa. Since 1998 a new gold mine has been opened massive disparity between the country’s mineral wealth and
every year. its abject poverty. The drive from Lake Victoria to the mine is a
Gold is just one of one of Tanzania’s mineral riches; it bone-shattering two hours. Mine officials don’t use it; they fly
also has vast resources of rubies, sapphires, diamonds and into an airstrip inside the mine site.
emeralds. But it is gold that predominates. It accounts for more AngloGold Ashanti (AGA), which runs the Geita mine that
than 90 per cent of the country’s mineral exports – in 2007 gold opened in 2000, says it wants to leave the community better
exports were worth more than £500m. The recent jitters in the off than it was when it arrived, yet the pot-holed roads and
global financial markets saw gold soar to US$1,000 an ounce, shacks have shown little sign of improvement over the past
the highest price in history. decade. A young miner, who shares a house with two families,
Tanzania’s 39 million citizens, however, have gained few says the company should be doing more: ‘Look at this place!
benefits from this huge natural coffer. Its UN development Geita should be doing more for us. We have to hope that there
ranking puts it at 159 out of 177 countries, more than half will be changes in the future, but we should have seen changes
the population live on less than US$1 a day, life expectancy is for the better already.’
just 51 years,140,000 people died of HIV-related illnesses in Mbaraka Islam, a journalist who has investigated the
2007, and 44 per cent of the population is classified as under- contracts signed by the big mining companies that entered the
nourished. country in the late 1990s with the Tanzanian government, has
Clouds of dust rise from the huge open-cast gold mine in Geita
Instead of reaping the rewards of a bonanza, the country spent time in Geita: ‘Back in the late 1980s I thought Tanzania

Christian Aid/Evelyn Hockstein

has lost hundreds of millions of pounds because the royalties would be in heaven like Botswana and South Africa, with
levied on extracted gold are so low and mining companies have tarmac roads, and good education and health systems. But

The concessions arising are significantly loans) falls below zero. a maximum of 0.3 per cent.
reduced. • Exemption from • Right to keep accounts in
• The right to deduct 100 per • A royalty rate of 3 per cent corporation tax of 30 per US dollars, which offers
cent of capital expenditure on gold exports. Other cent of profits, if operating protection from currency
from taxable income in the gold-exporting countries at a cash loss. exchange costs.
year in which it is incurred, in Africa, such as South • Zero per cent import duty • The right to repatriate 100
even though this means Africa and Ghana, charge on capital goods and fuel. per cent of profits.
no tax will be paid in early similar amounts: Ghana a • Five per cent import duty • Foreign firms guaranteed
years of mining operations minimum of 3 per cent and on spare parts for first year 100 per cent ownership of
because losses can be South Africa 2.1 per cent, but then zero thereafter. mines.
carried forward and offset although in both cases Similar arrangement • The right to employ
against future liabilities. more profitable companies for mining exploration unlimited numbers of
• The right to increase pay more.The figure also equipment such as foreign nationals.
the claim for capital compares badly to the 10 explosives and lubricants. • Losses are not ‘ring-fenced’
expenditure by 15 per cent per cent Botswana charges • Exemption from capital within the country, which
a year if they declare a for diamond extraction. gains tax. allows companies to
taxable loss.This inflated • Payment of the royalty can • Exemption from VAT on combine costs and income
expenditure is then carried be deferred if the ’cash imports and local supplies from one mine with those
forward for offset against operating margin‘ (that is, of goods and services. of other mines when
income in future years. revenue minus operating • Stamp duty on buying calculating tax liability.
Under this scheme the costs such as capital property or shares reduced
chances of taxable income expenditure and interest on from standard 4 per cent to
 12 Death and taxes Tanzania: the sharp end of the panga 13 Death and taxes Tanzania: the sharp end of the panga

‘The financial institutions lied to Tanzania. We

have every right to state we have been lied to
and we have every right to demand redress.’
Tundu Lissu, lawyer and activist

now nothing has changed and we are still begging.’ An inspector calls ASA noted that it was hindered by ‘the persistent reluctance in the year 2005 amounted to US$692.8 [million] compared to
The contracts with the mining companies clearly do not In 2003 the Tanzanian government contracted US company Alex of the mining companies to cooperate with the Auditor’ and just US$16.1m in 1997 – with gold alone rising from US$13.1m
have the interests of the country at heart. At the time they Stewart Assayers Government Business Corporation (ASA) to the companies’ failure to keep adequate documentation in 1999 to US$639.2m in 2005.’
were signed, the World Bank was urging Tanzania to develop conduct an audit of the large gold mines in the country, to check of their financial records in Tanzania. This meant that ‘these
private investment in mining and attract foreign capital. The if their declared production and financial positions were correct. mining companies are in default of the law, and failure to Geita
government’s Mineral Sector Policy 1997 emphasises the ASA’s report was kept secret, with the government refusing to cooperate could be interpreted as a strong desire to hide faulty The Geita gold mine is AGA’s only mine in Tanzania. It is one
primary role of companies in mining, with the government publish. It was leaked to the Sunday Citizen newspaper in 2006. declarations’.5 of Africa’s biggest open-cast mines and in 2006, according to
acting as regulator. It said that four gold mining companies, including Barrick In February 2007 the parliamentary Public Accounts its annual report, it produced 308,000 ounces of gold.8 It has
Commissioner for Minerals Peter Kafumu says negotiating and AGA, over-declared losses by US$502m (AGA US$158m Committee (PAC) in Dar es Salaam produced a report which been widely reported in the Tanzanian media that it will only
with the mining companies was an intimidating experience, and Barrick US$236m) between 1999 and 2003. This means the found that the mining companies had declared losses start paying corporation tax in 2011, 11 years after starting
much like being faced with a traditional weapon: ‘The government potentially lost revenues of US$132m. The audit estimated at US$1.045bn between 1998 and 2005, equivalent operations.9 Yet its own annual reports show the company has
companies are holding a panga by the handle and we are noted that thousands of documents were missing that would to a quarter of national budget for 2006-07. The PAC regarded made operating profits of US$93m from Geita between 2002
getting the sharp end.’ have shown whether royalties of US$25m had been paid. the ’losses‘ as suspect because mining companies were and mid-2007.
Lawyer and activist Tundu Lissu says the outflow of The ASA report stated: ‘The huge tax losses declared by making heavy capital investments at the time.6 The town of Geita does not have much to show for the
Tanzania’s wealth was predictable: ‘The financial institutions the mining companies are startling. The tax losses, comprised The report A Golden Opportunity? estimates that Tanzania fact that it is sitting on some of Tanzania’s richest gold seams.
lied to Tanzania. We have every right to state we have been lied of their investments, operating cost and tax exemptions, are has lost out on at least US$400m over the past seven years Mining has seen the population increase six fold from 20,000
to and we have every right to demand redress.’ carried forward by the mining companies, which then will not from low royalties and lost taxes from mining companies. The to 120,000 as men flock to Geita for jobs.
Mr Lissu has been at the forefront of the struggle by pay corporate taxes unless they have very large incomes.’ amount would have provided a ‘huge boost to tackling poverty But the roads are in a lamentable state and water has to
communities affected by large-scale mining for more than a The audit’s analysis states that AGA managed to exaggerate in Tanzania’.7 be fetched from wells as the main water-pipe goes direct from
decade. He is the co-author of A Golden Opportunity?, a report its losses by ‘early charging’ of a tax incentive providing for The report says the government’s budget for 2007-08 Lake Victoria to the mine camp, with no outlets for the local
co-funded by Christian Aid, which documents how Tanzania is 15 per cent additional capital allowance on unredeemed envisaged spending US$48 per person on development residents.
failing to benefit from its gold resources. capital expenditure, and also by ‘improper calculation of the expenditure such as education, health, infrastructure and water. Geita District Hospital was built in 1956 and probably has
His report spells out how the two foreign mining companies [tax] allowance base by not deducting taxable profit/gain’. The lost revenue could have paid for more than 8.3 million not seen much upgrading since. It is busy, with about 250
that run the six biggest mines – Barrick, from Canada, and AGA, ASA also stated that ‘a long list of documentation’ substantiating people to receive such services. The amount, the report adds, outpatients a day and some 160 inpatients. Many of the wards
based in South Africa but listed on the London stock exchange the amount of investment and production costs claimed was equivalent to more than 1.5 times Tanzania’s entire health have two patients to a bed. The busiest place is the HIV clinic,
– say they are running at a loss. was ‘missing’. budget for 2007. It could have funded the building of more than with an average of 150 patients a day. Doctors are concerned
Thanks to the very generous financial concessions they 66,000 secondary-school classrooms. about the incidence of HIV; as with all mining sites, the gold
were able to obtain when setting up in business in east Africa, The authors arrived at their figure by working out what mine attracts a lot of young single men.
this has meant that government revenues have seriously lost Tanzania would have received had a royalty rate of 7.5 per cent But malaria is the greatest concern for the medical
out. Royalties from the gold extracted have averaged £8.8m a Work at the bottom of the open-cast gold mine in Geita been levied and adding that figure to unpaid corporation tax, tax staff. They say mining has greatly increased its prevalence.
year and all other taxes have amounted to less than £3m. Local lost if mining companies had inflated their losses, and money Activities such as trenching, drilling and excavations tend to
Christian Aid/Evelyn Hockstein

media have reported allegations of tax evasion. they had failed to set aside for environmental rehabilitation. increase water run-off, which in turn increases breeding sites
Company figures show AGA paid US$96.8m in taxes and In March this year, Tanzania’s Chamber of Minerals and for mosquitoes. Dr Johannes Lukumay, the hospital’s medical
royalties between 2000 and 2006, averaging US$13.8m a year. Energy responded to allegations of tax evasion with a two-page officer, says: ‘We simply do not have sufficient stocks of anti-
Yet over the same period it produced three million ounces newspaper advertisement claiming that ‘none of the mining malarials.’
of gold worth US$1.43bn. Company reports say AGA made companies audited has ever seen an ASA report’. Geita employs 2,381 men, with a further 1,021 contractors.
operating profits totalling US$93m from 2002 until mid-2007. The advert continues: ‘It is an essential element of Basic annual salary is 350,000 shillings (US$300), which is
Barrick does not reveal how much it pays to the Tanzanian audit procedure that an auditee be given the opportunity to the minimum wage introduced by the government in January
government in taxes and royalties. Company reports, however, explain any apparent anomalies found during an audit. This 2008. In addition they receive a 15 per cent housing allowance,
show its Tanzanian mines provided ‘income’ (defined as sales has unfortunately never happened and has given rise to a lot free medical care for themselves and their families, and 28
less cost of sales, that is, gross profits) of US$97m since 2004.3 of speculation on the subject. The report is still a subject of days’ holiday.
Tanzania is estimated to possess about 45 million ounces discussion between the Government and respective mining Peter, a young miner who asked us not to use his
of gold. At the current gold price, that translates into a potential companies… real name, complained that his salary was not enough. He says
fortune of about US$39bn.4 ’Mining companies have invested in excess of US$2bn in that TAMICO, the miners’ trade union, has done little to improve
Tanzania over the last decade. As a result, total mineral exports wages. According to AGA only 3.1 per cent of the workforce
14 Death and taxes Tanzania: the sharp end of the panga 15 Death and taxes Tanzania: the sharp end of the panga

‘What the donors give is peanuts compared to the

wealth that goes out. The taxes ordinary citizens are
paying just allow multinationals to make huge profits.
You give money to your government, which gives that
money to Africa with strings attached.’
Professor Issa Shivji, legal scholar

is unionised. It is difficult to know whether it is the union’s ever been made public. The fourth review, Review of Mining

Christian Aid/Evelyn Hockstein

reputation or a company dislike of unions that is responsible Development Agreements and Fiscal Regime for the Mineral
for this. Sector, has been seen by Christian Aid. It recommends sweeping
Peter is alarmed at the treatment of the local populations changes to mining and fiscal laws, and the renegotiation of
displaced by the mine. ‘There is a lot of mistreatment of locals. various mineral development agreements with the mining
They are chased from their homes and not compensated. They companies.Yet, apart from minor changes to a recent agreement,
just live in camps and have lost their livestock,’ he says. none of the recommendations have been implemented.
Not far from the dingy two rooms Peter rents is an Mr Lissu, the co-author of A Golden Opportunity?, was
abandoned courthouse bearing the grand name of Environment impressed by the recommendations in the fourth review: ‘I
and Mined Land Rehabilitation Group, Orphans and Services. was surprised. For a government which always maintains that
In July 2007 86 families found themselves dumped here after all is well in the mining sector, it was a very candid examination
being evicted from their homes. of the mining problems.
They were from the village of Mtakuja, which now lies ‘But if you live in Tanzania and a report is not made public
inside the mine site. Emmanuel Balitazali, 53, vividly you can be sure it is not good for the government. They set it up
remembers that night. with a big flourish and then it peters out.’
‘Officers from the district came at three in the morning MP for Kigoma North Zitto Kabwe is a member of the latest
when we were all asleep. They had machine guns and a court review committee and is determined that, should the president
order evicting us. We didn’t have a chance to pack; they put us refuse to make the report public, he will do so anyway. In
in a vehicle and dumped us here.’ August 2007 he was suspended from parliament when he
Village leaders say they had already won a case against introduced a private motion to investigate the government
Geita and that the company’s appeal was pending. Others after it had signed a new mining agreement even though it had
claim that the company is in the clear as it had paid promised not to do so until the review had been completed.
compensation to the district commission, which did not then Mr Kabwe is concerned that the donor countries have
pass it on to the residents. remained so silent on the issue of low gold-mining taxes. ‘The
Whatever the rights and wrongs, it is clear that Emmanuel donors do not speak out at all about the mining sector,’ he says.
and his wife Venerranda now have no home, few belongings He finds this surprising in light of the fact that donor countries
and little hope of redress. contribute 40 per cent of Tanzania’s budget.
‘We had to leave home, where we had our livelihood This silence has been highlighted in the local press. Mr Mramba states: ‘During preparations of the new Emmanuel Balitazali, 53, and his wife Venerranda Thomas, both
and where we had raised our children,’ says Emmanuel An editorial in the Sunday Citizen says: ‘They [the donors] law a number of foreign diplomats in the country formed a displaced from Mtakuja by the Geita gold mine

standing in the middle of the courtroom with its two rows of remain tellingly silent on environmental rape committed by committee to study the recommendations relating to the
raised benches. foreign mining companies. We don’t hear strong words from relevant tax bill, a measure which was unusual. Being the then however, appear to have raised concerns about how mining
Venerranda points to their meagre pile of pots, bags and them when artisanal miners or villagers in mining areas are Minister for Finance, I met them twice to listen and respond to companies declare their revenues or about the favourable
flip-flops: ‘It was very difficult. I couldn’t stop crying. We could undermined... When the mining law was being passed, or even their objections, especially to the manner in which mines were treatment they receive.
do nothing. I had lived there all my married life. I was not happy now when there is a big debate on its contents, conspicuously to be made to pay income tax, as had then been proposed by The UK is Tanzania’s largest bilateral donor, spending £120m
to be taken from my home and to lose all my belongings.’ missing is the voice of the donors... With such a stance, won’t an expert from Oxford University in England. Eventually, the on aid in 2007-08, and one of the largest overall investors in the
one be forgiven to conclude that development partners are Cabinet decided to postpone the incorporation into the new country, with investments worth about 1.4 trillion Tanzanian
Time for a change guilty of condoning corruption by their kith and kin, the big law of the entire section of that bill which dealt with minerals so shillings (US$1.1bn). It is also a major international proponent
There is pressure inTanzania for change. In his inaugural address western mining companies?’11 that it would be re-examined when the time was right.’ of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative – which sets
in December 2005, President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete promised There is some evidence for the collusion suggested in the The expert was not named and nor were the diplomats, global standards for companies to ‘publish what they pay’ in oil,
to review all mining contracts to ensure that ‘the nation is editorial. A letter dated 3 December 2007 to the chairman of the although it is alleged they represented the UK, Norway, South gas and mining contracts, and for governments to disclose in
benefiting from the richest minerals available in most parts of Mineral Sector Regulatory System Review Committee from Africa and Canada. The UK, Canada and South Africa have full what they receive for them.
the country.’10 In November 2007 the president announced Basil Mramba, the Minister for Industries, Trade and Marketing, a particular responsibility when it comes to gold mining in Dr Kafumu, the Commissioner for Minerals, believes that
the formation of a committee to investigate the nature of the relates what happened when, in 2004, the government Tanzania. AGA and Barrick are based in South Africa and Canada Tanzania is at a great disadvantage when sitting across the
mining laws and contracts. repealed the Income Tax Act of 1973 and replaced it with the respectively. One of AGA’s major shareholders is the British table from mining companies and their lawyers. ‘We have no
There have been four such previous committees; none have 2004 Income Tax Act. corporation Anglo American. None of these governments, capacity to look at their books. They can write the books so
16 Death and taxes Tanzania: the sharp end of the panga 17 Death and taxes Malawi: the way forward?

From green gold to yellow cake

Athman Omari working at Malawi Kaseko says: ‘We knew the an extraordinary journey – The processed ‘yellow cake’

Christian Aid/Evelyn Hockstein

an artisanal mining site near uranium deposits were there, from the courtroom to an will be transported by lorry to
the Geita gold mine. These
Malawi, a tiny landlocked but it was better to leave it unusual alliance of company, the port of Dar es Salaam in
small-scale miners are
increasingly being displaced country, is surrounded by there rather than get a raw government and CSOs. Tanzania.
by the large mining companies. countries with mining deal. We saw how our The eventual outcome With little response
The World Bank estimates there
history: copper in Zambia neighbouring countries had illustrates how a developing forthcoming from either
are now 170,000 small-scale
miners inTanzania; in 1995 and gold inTanzania. It has blundered and we decided to country government, Paladin or the government –
there were 550,000 long been solely dependent learn from them.’ working together with its Mr Hajat says the government
on agriculture, with fertile soil The government says it is concerned citizens, can called the CSOs ‘anti-
and plentiful rainfall.The late now satisfied with the fiscal negotiate better deals on development demons’ – the
President for Life Hastings deal it has negotiated. One mineral extraction for the CSOs decided on drastic action.
Kamuzu Banda, ‘Dr Hastings’, key aspect was that it felt it benefit of its people. They took the government to
urged Malawians to grow was important to be a ‘We were concerned about court for ‘betraying the interests
more maize – what he called shareholder in Paladin the manner in which the of the country’, alleging
their ‘green gold’. Malawi, given public agreement was signed and unconstitutionality and
Soaring oil prices and concerns about uranium. we believed the government breaches of environment laws.
concern over climate change It has a 15 per cent equity in was not acting in the best Undule Mwakasungula,
have led to increased interest the mine.The royalty rate was interests of Malawians,’ says executive director of the
in Malawi’s uranium set at 1.5 per cent for the first Rafiq Hajat, executive Centre for Human Rights and
reserves. Malawi is now three years’ production and director of The Institute for Rehabilitation, defended the
that third-world countries cannot regulate properly. Even the and if there were no over-declaration of total cost, this year we poised for its first modern 3 per cent after that; the Policy Interaction. action saying: ‘Regulatory
contracts are difficult. I think the mining companies exploit our should get slightly more than what the donors give us.’ mining project, undertaken corporate tax was set at There were a number of legislation has to be in place
weaknesses in law and capacity,’ he says. Mr Lissu thinks taxpayers in the donor countries should by the Australian-based 27.5 per cent. In addition, any issues that concerned the in order to control the mining
‘Globalisation is a disadvantage to third-world countries. insist their countries stop picking up the bill for the mining Paladin Resources, at profit or loss is ring-fenced so group. Namely, the lack of of uranium. Malawi as a
Donor countries are protecting their industries. I have seen companies: ‘It is just common sense for citizens to demand Kayelekera in Karonga in the can only be attributed to the legislation regulating the sovereign country is required
several times ambassadors accompanied by mining officials their governments stop subsiding African countries when far north of the country. mine at Kayelekera and not to mining of uranium, the lack of to introduce its own
speaking to ministers.’ these countries have the resources to lead them out of the It is estimated the wider Paladin operations. consultation, threats to health legislation to control and
Professor Issa Shivji is one of Tanzania’s most respected deep poverty in which they exist.’ exploitation of Malawi’s ‘We believe Malawi was from radiation, threats to regulate companies such as
legal scholars. He says that the government should have taken In Geita, Emmanuel Balitazali ruefully surveys his few uranium reserves will able to secure a good water resources (Kayelekera Paladin.’
a tougher negotiating position. ‘The mining legislature was belongings in his corner of the abandoned courthouse. generate an annual income outcome from the lies within a catchment of a Things seemed set for a
framed so that it was full of loopholes. The state could have ‘I am terribly disappointed as there is a lot of wealth. of up to US$250m.Tobacco is negotiations, particularly river flowing directly into long, drawn-out, expensive
demanded a 51 per cent share,’ he says. Other people are enjoying the wealth and we struggle to currently the country’s main given that this was the first Lake Malawi, Africa’s third- court case until news of the
He disputes the allegation that there is no in-country survive,’ he says. foreign exchange earner at mining investment of this largest freshwater lake), court action leaked in Australia
expertise: ‘We have the expertise, the university here has a ‘My government inflicts a lot of pain on me because the US$19m. It needs to benefit scale to be made in the secrecy, and the lack of and Paladin shares started to
long-established faculty of law, but we were never consulted.’ government does not seek our interests. There is a lot of from its mineral resources; it country,’ says an official close guaranteed benefits for slide. An out-of-court
Professor Shivji thinks it is more important that Tanzania uncertainty in my life.’ is the fourteenth poorest to the negotiations. surrounding community. settlement was suggested.
regains its rightful revenues to correct the relationship with The reason for that uncertainty is not hard to find. It is country in the world, with life The mining licence was The group also wanted The three parties sat down
the donors. ‘What the donors give is peanuts compared to the created by the companies mining gold in Tanzania, all of them expectancy of 46 years. granted in April 2007, but assurances that the for some hard bargaining
wealth that goes out. The taxes ordinary UK citizens are paying large transnational companies based in the developed world The Malawi government controversy dogged the International Atomic Energy that took three days. In
just allow multinationals to make huge profits. You give money and part of the financial establishment of those countries. took a hard look at the mining project following the leak of Agency was fully involved in November 2007 Paladin
to your government, which gives that money to Africa with Yet reports in Tanzania allege that their local operations contracts in surrounding the Environmental Impact drawing up safety standards announced that the company,
strings attached.’ cannot keep proper accounts, cannot produce these records countries before sitting down Assessment. A group of six and guidelines for transport the government of Malawi
Mr Kabwe, the MP who is currently on the review for government auditors, and have overstated their losses to to the negotiating table. influential civil-society of the uranium.The mine is and the CSOs had settled
commission, spells out the implications: ‘Under normal dodge tax. Acting director at the organisations (CSOs) swung located close to Lake Malawi their action on a ‘positive and
circumstances, if all taxes were paid, if no gold was undervalued Department of Mines Ellason into action. It set the scene for and the Rift Valley fault line. amicable basis’.
18 Death and taxes Malawi: the way forward? 19 Death and taxes

For more than a century there has been an inherent contradiction

in the attitude of Western legislators towards tax havens.
Despite their much-vaunted regard for the rule of law (and
more recent concern for human rights plus the desire to help
the developing world) they have allowed a financial system to
develop that is wide open to abuse.

The terms of settlement

stated that the government of
Malawi would establish a
were determined to derail the
negotiations.’
Mr Hajat agrees: ‘We
The secret shore
working group involving the were not against mining
CSOs to amend the Mines per se. We were interested
and Minerals Act and to in the best interests of the

Christian Aid/Judith Melby

develop legislation to deal people.That is the role of
with the handling and government and we wanted
transport of radioactive to make sure it was fulfilling
substances.The CSOs would its responsibilities.’
participate in the team Mr Mwakasungula says it
monitoring Paladin’s was a good deal for Malawi Kayelekera uranium mine, Karonga, Malawi
environmental and health and issues this warning:
obligations. ‘These agreements are some 300 workers, now At the Bar Marina on the
At the request of the legally binding and if the there are 500 people busy edge of the lake, most people
Karonga community, the government or Paladin constructing the mine and are willing to take time out
government and Paladin violates the agreements, that the processing plant. from watching the English St John’s Harbour, Antigua – one of the Caribbean’s many tax havens
agreed to upgrade the would be a case of contempt, Demolition of the hill Premiership football match
community water supply at so we can go back to court.’ containing the uranium and talk, but they are less
Karonga.The company also Karonga lies at the northern seam is under way. keen to give their names.
pledged to upgrade the local tip of Malawi, hard up against People in Karonga are Says one local
airport in Karonga to the border withTanzania.The pleased at the prospect of businessman: ‘It’s a good
international standards (it uranium mine is another 50km economic development in a thing, it will have an effect
had planned to build an from the town; a risky drive in region that has historically because there will be more
airstrip inside the mine site). the rainy season with the suffered from neglect. But jobs. But the big challenge
The agreement marked a possibility of collapsed bridges there is a lot of suspicion will be to monitor the
sea change in the relationship and washed-out roads. about the company and the company. We are worried
between the government and The start date of mining perceived health dangers of about pollution and the
the CSOs. As part of the depends on the condition of uranium. transport of the uranium.’
monitoring committee, the the road and has now been Although Paladin claims Says another: ‘I am very
CSOs have a permanent role put off until the end of 2008. already to be spending happy to have the mine here,
overseeing the mining Construction of the road was US$11,000 a week on local but we are all worried about
operation and ensuring all initially funded byTaiwan but produce, the business the effects. We have heard a
parties keep to the was abandoned after Malawi community complains it is lot of bad things. Uranium is
agreement. severed ties withTaiwan in bypassing them and buying dangerous.’
Deputy Minister of Water January 2008 and recognised direct from wholesalers. The action by the Malawi
and Irrigation Frank mainland China. China has There are also rumours CSOs, and the government’s
Mwenefumbo was one of promised to complete the about the effects of determination to learn from
those who initiated the road and Chinese surveyors radioactivity and its neighbours, has ushered
dialogue: ‘We recognised the are already at work, their contamination of the in a new era for extractive
role of CSOs in Malawi. Even conical straw hats the only waterways. Apart from the contracts. Observers say
Christian Aid/Judy Rogers

the Minister of Finance says protection against the health implications, this the contract drawn up in
we have learnt from them. tropical rain. would also affect the this tiny country will have
We had started with the The mine itself is buzzing. livelihood of the fishing repercussions far beyond
perception that the CSOs In full operation it will employ community. its borders.
20 Death and taxes The secret shore 21 Death and taxes The secret shore

Getting one up on the tax authorities has undoubtedly been to have hidden hundreds of millions of euros in secret bank prohibits paying bribes to foreign officials. For years it said no tax overseas and to take advantage of Ireland’s low corporate
a feature of human society since the first-known system of accounts in the small Alpine principality of Liechtenstein. In new law was necessary, until peer review by other signatories tax rate: evidence that Ireland’s corporate taxation policy
taxation was introduced by the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. The the UK, HM Revenue and Customs recently forced the big determined that it was. Provision was made in the Anti- undermines the tax structures of other countries.
paying of tax has generally been viewed unfavourably by those five high-street banks to hand over details of customers with terrorism, Crime and Security Act of 2001.
who are liable – an antagonism that has seen monarchies offshore accounts. These customers are now being pursued for If there are any doubts left as to the UK’s active support What tax havens offer
overthrown and governments brought to a violent end. tax, with a further 170 financial institutions and organisations of tax havens, then the operation of CDC plc, formerly The inescapable fact is there are only four reasons for banking
Today’s dissenters, however, have no need to make their facing similar requests for disclosure. the Commonwealth Development Corporation, is enough to ‘offshore’:
protest in blood. Celebrities such as Formula One racing Tax havens certainly deprive the exchequers of rich countries, allay them. • to avoid tax (which is legal)
champion Lewis Hamilton and pop star Phil Collins simply but they have an immeasurably greater impact on developing The company was set up to channel funds on behalf of the • to evade tax (which isn’t)
jet off to the balmier tax climes of Switzerland, while U2 lead countries that can ill afford the losses. Rich country governments British government to projects in the developing world. Latest • to function in secret
singer Bono relocates his recording rights in a Netherlands- should do a great deal more to curb their activities. company accounts show that on worldwide pre-tax profits of • to sidestep regulations controlling financial services or
based tax structure. Havens enable businesses, particularly transnational £365m, the company paid no tax either in Britain or abroad – in monopolistic practices.
The fortunes of these three are a small part of the truly corporations (TNCs), to deprive poorer countries of vast fact it qualified for tax refunds.4 Many of its 78 subsidiaries are In each scenario, the pursuit of profit outweighs all other
vast amounts of money that are now held in the world’s amounts of money that is rightfully theirs. In some cases it can based in holding companies in tax havens such as Mauritius, considerations, including good citizenship and social
70-plus tax havens. Estimates by the Organisation for Economic also be the haven that provides a hiding place for bribes paid to Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. responsibility.
Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2007 suggested the corrupt. Richard Murphy, a chartered accountant and senior adviser The world’s more prominent tax havens, such as the British
that the sums then parked ‘offshore’ totalled anything from The UK has a particular responsibility for the system now to the Tax Justice Network, says: ‘These tax rates are just about Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Singapore, and Jersey and
US$5 trillion to US$7 trillion (£2.5-£3.5 million million – at least in place. More than 30 Commonwealth countries and Crown the lowest I have ever seen. They make the most advanced tax Guernsey, operate as follows:
twice the amount of Britain’s gross domestic product).1 Dependencies have taken their place alongside states such as planners look like amateurs. • non-residents can register companies and pay little or no tax
The Tax Justice Network is an international campaign group Monaco, Luxembourg and Switzerland as tax havens of note.3 ‘They are the result of statutory tax exemption for CDC in on the profits attributed to them
with headquarters in London that promotes transparency in Measures that have transformed Crown dependencies into the UK and negotiated exemptions overseas. It sets the most • tax information is either not exchanged with other states or it
international finance and opposes secrecy. It has spent the past places that can aid and abet crime must have had the explicit appalling precedent that companies investing in developing is made very hard for them to obtain
five years investigating tax havens. It estimates that the true approval of the UK government, because changes of legislation countries should not expect to pay tax.’ • the identities of the real owners or beneficiaries of bank
figure held offshore is around US$11 trillion. This includes the in such places have to be passed by the UK’s Privy Council. The Irish government does not appear to be concerned accounts, companies and trusts can be kept secret
value of houses, yachts, works of art and other tangible assets There are other ways that the UK government colludes about the global financial impact of tax havens either. Since • no public disclosure of accounts is required.
whose ownership is registered in tax havens. with the havens. The EU Savings Tax Directive was introduced the 1970s, Ireland has built its economic growth on foreign The secrecy ensures that it is easy for those who want to use
Even that estimate tells only part of the story: with tax to target funds held by EU residents in tax havens on which direct investment, manipulating its tax system to attract TNCs companies registered in these tax havens to avoid or even
havens now involved in an estimated half of all global trade, the interest earned was not being declared. But this has been aggressively. By 2004, it was the most profitable global location evade tax liabilities due elsewhere.
sums passing through will be even greater.2 largely neutered by the UK insisting it cannot apply to trusts for US firms to invest, its position bolstered by broad political In many tax havens, hundreds of banks are on hand to
Firmly entrenched in today’s fiscal thinking, tax havens and limited companies. support for maintaining corporate tax at just 12.5 per cent. This facilitate business. Some 270 have a presence in the Cayman
are accepted as a fact of life. But there is a moral ambivalence Huge profits made by offshore companies trading on the puts Ireland in direct competition with some tax havens for the Islands alone.7 Accountancy firms are also very much in
surrounding them. Their purpose is to enable businesses and London markets can be sent straight into offshore accounts, investment of transnational corporations. evidence (the ‘big four’ – KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers,
individuals to trade unencumbered by taxes and financial with no questions asked about the ownership of the Yet even in this low-tax climate, companies like US software Deloitte and Ernst & Young are present in virtually every major
regulations, no matter what the merit of those taxes or companies, and no tax paid. The absence of such a ‘withholding giant Adobe’s two Irish subsidiaries had a combined turnover haven), along with tax and corporation lawyers. These experts
regulations might be. tax’ is another cause for concern. of US$2.6bn (€1.66bn/£1.31bn) last year yet paid just US$5m in international finance also play an active part in helping the
To guarantee that freedom, they have to guarantee secrecy The UK’s tax laws for ‘non domicile’ residents were (€3.19m/£2.53m) in Irish corporate tax, an effective rate of 0.5 havens’ governments dream up new schemes and services to
for their customers too. But therein lies a problem. For that modified, under protest, in 2008 so that annual payments of per cent. The company trades extensively within itself and, as pull in ever more customers, and to devise changes in the law
secrecy, which is usually enshrined in the haven’s judicial code, £30,000 are now required in lieu of tax. But the changes failed it doesn’t report a geographical breakdown, it is very difficult to that may add to a haven’s attraction.
can serve as a cover for tax evasion, bribery, corruption and to bring into the tax net assets held in offshore trusts and see exactly where profits are made and what taxes are paid.5 This is a cut-throat business where havens vie with each
money laundering. companies. People with a country of origin other than the UK, Recent research shows that TNCs investing in Ireland have, other for the trade while trying to stay ahead of the world’s tax
Some efforts are being made to lift the veil. US financial or with a parent from abroad, who say that they plan to leave on average, more than twice the yield on their investments authorities and regulators. Because many havens are relatively
regulators have taken determined steps to curb the activities the UK at some indeterminate date in the future will still only compared to Irish firms investing overseas.6 This is, in part, small, geographically and in terms of population, laws and
of accountants, lawyers and banks engaging in tax-haven be taxed on income made in the UK. attributable to the profitability of foreign-owned capital in regulations can be introduced or amended rapidly, resulting in
practices they judge ‘abusive’. The German authorities are The UK government was only reluctantly persuaded to Ireland being overstated. In practice, this is because TNCs continual change.
clamping down hard on some 750 wealthy citizens discovered accept into British law the provisions of an OECD treaty that ‘export’ profits from other countries to Ireland, to avoid paying The Cayman Islands, for instance, are now the world’s
22 Death and taxes The secret shore 23 Death and taxes The secret shore

The inescapable fact is there are only four reasons for banking
‘offshore’: to avoid tax (which is legal), to evade tax (which isn’t),
to function in secret, to sidestep regulations controlling financial
services or monopolistic practices. In each scenario, the pursuit
of profit outweighs all other considerations, including good
citizenship and social responsibility.

fifth-largest banking centre where an estimated US$2 trillion • set up companies that do no real trade in the haven itself Argentina began gathering speed When investigators began from trading in Buenos
is believed to be held. Within months of a local banker being • set up trusts to own and manage assets located elsewhere. that was to lead to soaring probing, however, they Aires unless it could be
served with a subpoena to appear before a grand jury in the Regulations against money-laundering require tax-haven Argentina knows only too unemployment and the discovered that in all the proved it was genuinely
US investigating tax evasion, the Cayman Islands brought in financial services companies to enquire where the funds they well the damaging effect country defaulting on documents relating to the engaged in business activity
bank secrecy with the Confidential Relationships (Preservation) manage come from. But there is little evidence that these tax havens can have on a its bonds, but it took an club, the alleged owner was in the country where it was
Law.8 They also became a firm favourite with US healthcare regulations are used in any effective way, as a UK government country’s economy. In the overwhelming tragedy merely listed as the club’s registered.13 Absolute
companies after representatives of a US healthcare group audit of the British Crown Dependencies found in 2008.10 The late 1990s corrupt officials several years later to goad ‘administrator’. transparency was also
arrived wanting to insure their clients against medical report comments on the low number of suspicious-activity used tax havens to hide the the authorities into action. The real owners of the club demanded as to the
malpractice suits and helped to write the Cayman Islands’ reports in a number of smaller financial institutions, saying this huge amounts of money After 200 people died in a and the disco company, on identity of the real owners
insurance laws.9 low number indicated that ‘some financial institutions either do they were looting from the fire at a Buenos Aires disco, paper at least, were and beneficiaries.
Businesses and individuals who decide to use a tax haven not know or monitor their customers sufficiently, or are unaware nation’s coffers. survivors revealed that corporations registered in It is thought that the
are encouraged to: of their obligations to report.’ In 2001 a client of Citibank emergency exits had been neighbouring Uruguay, a tax Buenos Aires authorities
• open bank accounts to receive income earned elsewhere in Buenos Aires secretly sealed shut. As crowds took haven, under the name of a are the first worldwide to
Vaduz, capital of Liechtenstein, a tax haven where financial
and to settle bills incurred elsewhere, often using a credit secrecy was penetrated after a former bank employee sold a filmed a meeting at which a to the streets in January 2005 70-year-old local frontman have attempted to tackle
card registered in the tax haven list of account-holders bank official offered to help to demand justice for the who had no money of his own. comprehensively the
him take money out of the dead, the hundreds of The Inspector General of principle of secrecy that
country illegally. After all, said injured and the bereaved, Justice for Buenos Aires, underpins tax havens.
the official, he did the same manslaughter proceedings Ricardo Nissen, decided it
for many customers.12 were started against the was time to act. Directives
The video was shown on man who appeared to be the were issued banning any
TV as an economic crisis club’s owner. company registered offshore

Many havens do not regard tax evasion as a criminal offence How tax havens are used
in the first place. Most have finance intelligence units that are One of the most common uses to which havens are put
supposed to be called in if money laundering is suspected. by TNCs is to ‘hold’ huge sums of money that in other
But they are not very busy. In 2007 just two cases of money jurisidictions would attract tax. Hence the large number of
laundering were detected in Jersey, according to the island’s ‘holding companies’ based offshore. Havens also allow TNCs
annual police report.11 and wealthy individuals to set up ‘trusts’ into which money is
Financial centres such as London, New York and Frankfurt paid. The identity of those paying in the money is hidden, as is
also qualify as havens because they offer special facilities to the identity of those with access to it.
non-residents. But their terms and conditions can be more
exacting. Holding companies
Many tax havens are microstates with little or no other Most TNCs pay tax if profits from their subsidiaries are passed
resources, and some of them make most of their annual to them directly. This is because if the TNC is quoted on a major
revenue through charging fees for their services. Such fees stockmarket, it will need to be incorporated in a major financial
can be hefty – they account for half the annual revenue of the centre such as London, New York or Frankfurt, and subject to
British Virgin Islands for instance – but are modest compared the tax laws of those jurisdictions.
to the tax savings made by their clients. The cost of tax lost To reduce their tax liability, the TNC will set up in a tax
to governments, especially those in the developing world, is haven an intermediate ‘holding company’ owned by the parent
enormous. company, but which in turn owns some or all of the parent’s
subsidiaries.
All profits from the global subsidiaries will go to the holding
company. In turn, the holding company will make any money
the parent company needs available in the form of intra-
24 Death and taxes The secret shore 25 Death and taxes The secret shore

company loans. The parent company then pays interest on the on record nor do their accounts have to be published – an same time, Liechtenstein emerged as a tax haven after passing restrictions designed to limit the US external trade deficit.
money it has borrowed from the offshore holding company, exception being charitable trusts in some countries, such as a trust law designed to attract foreign investors in 1926. The election of Harold Wilson’s Labour government in the
obtaining tax relief where it is based. the UK. As a result they are the perfect mechanism for secret Switzerland had by then emerged as a place where the UK in 1964 saw yet more money leave Britain’s shores. More
Large amounts of capital in the tax haven are then at the tax planning. wealthy of a number of European countries chose to hide their recently, the elimination of exchange controls, the deregulation
disposal of the parent company – usually beyond the challenge money from the tax hikes imposed by many governments of financial markets and the internet revolution have all
of tax authorities – to invest anywhere or anyhow they like. The road to ruin after World War One to pay for reconstruction. A bank secrecy contributed to greater finance mobility, trebling the number of
William Brittain-Catlin, author of Offshore – The Dark Side For more than a century there has been an inherent law was introduced in 1934 in Switzerland making it a criminal tax havens and vastly increasing the amount of money poured
of the Global Economy, says: ‘In 2002 BP had more than contradiction in the attitude of western legislators towards tax offence to divulge details of account holders and what they into them.
US$500m in offshore capital invested in various financial havens. Despite their much-vaunted regard for the rule of law owned. The Swiss were later to claim that this was to protect
instruments to speculate on the money markets, making it as (and more recent concern for human rights plus the desire to the interests of wealthy Jews who were starting to suffer The way forward
much a bank as an oil producer.’ help the developing world) they have allowed a financial system persecution under the Nazis. More recent research has Those campaigning for an end to tax havens have a long list of
Every TNC uses holding companies. BP uses them in the to develop that is wide open to abuse. suggested that the Swiss secrecy law was in fact drawn up to suggestions for ways to curb the abuse.
Cayman Islands for ownership of many of its subsidiaries, as The tax havens central to the abuse did not emerge on to protect the great and the good of France after scandals broke The key, though, is transparency. If the veil of secrecy
does Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s largest TNC. Royal Dutch the world’s financial stage as a fully formed grand design that about their use of Swiss bank accounts.14 around tax havens were lifted, many of the abuses would
Shell has a number of companies in Bermuda; General Motors could be put to immediate use. Instead, their development was According to Ronen Palan, author of The Offshore World: simply stop.
has companies both in the Cayman Islands and Barbados; piecemeal, and they continue to evolve. Sovereign Markets, Virtual Places, and Nomad Millionaires, Christian Aid is joining with the campaign group Tax Justice
ExxonMobil has holding companies in the Bahamas and the The first tax haven in recent history is believed to have been it was the Suez crisis of 1956 that really set the stage for the Network in calling on governments to insist that tax havens
Cayman Islands; and Ford Motor Company’s reinsurance group the US state of Delaware. In the late nineteenth century it emergence of a large number of British Crown Dependencies publish full details about the owners, beneficiaries and officials
is based in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. offered companies that had hitherto been incorporated in New as tax havens, and established London as the world’s biggest of the companies, charities and trusts registered in their
A holding company may also serve as a depository for the York a number of tax benefits, and regulatory advantages, if financial market in the process. jurisdiction, as well as requiring that these entities’ accounts be
TNC’s intellectual property rights. These comprise patents, for they incorporated in Delaware. One benefit was that directors The attack on Egypt by Britain, France and Israel after made available for public inspection.
which royalties must be paid, and copyrights, for which licence and shareholders did not have to be listed. Colonel Gamal Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal was TNCs should be required to make country-by-country
fees must be paid. They have either been bought by the TNC or, It was the ‘Gilded Age’. With the civil war over, the opposed by the US. In order to bring pressure to bear on the disclosure about the taxes they have paid. Only then can the
in most cases, have been taken out on products the TNC has population was growing and industry was expanding, and a British government, the US immediately began selling sterling. developing world be sure of a fair deal.
itself developed. generation of super-rich entrepreneurs, known as the Robber With the pound depreciating in value, the UK government
The holding company will then charge the rest of the TNC Barons, had emerged. went on the defensive, raising interest rates and temporarily
for their use. Virgin, for instance, licenses the use of its logo Companies flocked to Delaware, and have stayed there ever restricting all sterling investments overseas. At that time the
to all other parts of the Virgin empire from the British Virgin since. Today many of the world’s largest corporations have their City of London was dominated by small merchant and
Islands. Microsoft holds the copyright on most of its products homes in this small Atlantic seaboard state – Wal-Mart, General investment banks, which were there to serve the British
for sale outside the US in Ireland. Motors, Ford, Boeing, Citigroup, ChevronTexaco and Coca-Cola. Empire. Unable to trade overseas, they were threatened with
Those that don’t, such as ExxonMobil, IBM and General Electric, going out of business.
Trusts tend to have their main subsidiary holding companies there. Sometime in September 1957 a new type of financial
A trust is the mechanism through which some companies and The use of offshore facilities by companies trading in Britain market emerged, says Palan. It became clear that the Bank of
many individuals keep their money offshore. In essence, a began early in the twentieth century when de Beers, the England did not regard non-residents dealing in foreign currency
trust is a legal entity in which a person or entity owning wealth mining concern formed by Cecil Rhodes in South Africa, and in London as subject to UK financial regulations.
places it in the care of a trustee, who agrees to manage it for the Vestey family, owner of the Dewhurst butchers chain, won ‘It threw a life-line to the British banks, but it was also
the benefit of other people, called the beneficiaries. legal rulings that the place of taxation for any UK company was seized upon by American banks, which in the US were heavily
Trusts date back to the time of the Crusades, when knights the country in which its directors met. This paved the way for regulated, and they started invading London,’ says Palan. ‘Then
wanted to ensure that their dependants were looked after while directors of British companies to meet in such places as the those that were not so wealthy found they could do the same
they were at war. Today, they are widely used for tax planning Channel Islands, thereby avoiding UK taxes. This situation thing in places like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, which
and to disguise where the wealth has come from, and where persisted until the 1990s when it was ruled that a UK company not only were under British jurisdiction, but were closer to their
it goes. was always taxable in this country. time zone too.’
Throughout the world trusts can be managed almost The Great Depression at the end of the 1920s, which was By the early 1960s offshore havens became the ideal place
entirely without public scrutiny. Their existence does not have accompanied by personal and corporate tax rises in the US, saw to trade US dollars, which were in high demand in Europe but
to be declared, nor do the names of the trustees have to be US capital pour into banks in the Bahamas and Panama. At the which could not be bought directly from the US because of
 26 Death and taxes 27 Death and taxes The haven experts

‘It’s nothing short of a scandal that firms known to have either

participated in crime or to have committed major breaches of
financial regulations can play a part in determining how the
global accountancy profession is operated and regulated.’
John Christensen, former economic adviser to the States of Jersey, who now heads the international secretariat
of the Tax Justice Network

The haven experts Every month, in a 1970s City of London office block built on the
site of a Wren church destroyed in the Blitz, an august group of
businessmen and women gather from around the world.
government agencies over a 13-year period.7 It also paid
US$2.3m to ‘settle allegations’ that it helped IBM pay bribes
to secure US government contracts.8
Although largely unknown outside their profession – accountancy • Ernst & Young paid the US government US$15m for failing to
– those present wield immense power and influence. register tax shelters or properly maintain lists of people who
They form the International Accounting Standards Board bought them.9 It paid a further US$1.7m after entering into a
(IASB), a self-appointed body that devises the rules covering business relationship with a software firm it was auditing, an
how companies should produce their annual accounts. More arrangement the SEC said was ‘reckless, highly unreasonable
than 100 governments worldwide, including those of the UK and negligent’.10 The company was banned in the US from
and all other member nations of the EU, tend to rubber-stamp taking on new corporate clients for six months. It was also
their findings into law. censured by the SEC and paid US$1.6m to settle charges
Given the board’s standing, it is pertinent to ask why it that it had compromised its independence and contributed
typically includes among its members former employees of to faulty accounting by a client.11
accountancy firms that have in recent years paid massive sums • In the UK, a tax scheme sold by Ernst & Young to retailers was
to settle allegations of lawbreaking or the breaching of financial called by a Treasury spokesman ‘one of the most blatantly
regulations. abusive avoidance scams of recent years’. He added: ‘If
The firms in question are not shady backstreet operators unchecked, it would have cost our public services at least
known only to their clients and the tax authorities. They are £300m per year.’ It encouraged retailers to avoid paying VAT
Headquarters of the International Accounting Standards Board, in the City of London
the ‘big four’ accountancy firms: PricewaterhouseCoopers, on a 2.5 per cent handling fee paid by credit- and debit-card
Deloitte, Ernst & Young and KPMG, which together help fund customers.12
the IASB through a foundation registered in the US tax haven • In Italy, all four firms were fined for ‘concluding agreements
of Delaware. to substantially restrict competition on the auditing services
Recent cases in which the firms have been involved include: market’.13
• KPMG forced to pay a regulatory fine of US$456m in the US The preponderance of US cases reflects the tighter regulatory
after admitting criminal wrongdoing by ‘designing, marketing regime in the US and the greater power, and determination, of
and implementing illegal tax shelters’.1 It was the ‘largest tax fiscal investigators to bring offenders to book.
case ever filed’ in US history.2 As recently as March 2008 ‘It’s nothing short of a scandal that firms known to have
prosecutors were trying to bring charges against 13 former either participated in crime or to have committed major
KPMG executives in connection with the case.3 The firm breaches of financial regulations can play a part in determining
avoided indictment as prosecutors did not want to see it how the global accountancy profession is operated and
share the same fate as accountancy giant Arthur Andersen, regulated,’ says John Christensen, a former economic adviser
which stopped trading and shed 80,000 jobs when linked to to the States of Jersey, who now heads the international
a previous tax-haven scandal.4 secretariat of the Tax Justice Network, which campaigns for
• Deloitte agreed to pay US$50m in the US after the US transparency in international tax.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found it had ‘There is an accountants’ club making the rules by which
committed ‘improper professional conduct’ by failing to they play where there should be an impartial body exercising
detect a massive fraud perpetrated by a company it audited. proper scrutiny,’ he says. ‘Surely, given the scope for abuse
Deloitte neither admitted nor denied the finding.5 In the UK, within this rule-setting process, and the known practices
Deloitte’s financial advice business was fined £750,000 of some of the companies involved, we are beyond the self-
by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for mis-selling regulatory phase?’14
financial products and failing to keep proper records. The The board itself includes three members with close
FSA said the business’s approach to compliance was ‘wholly associations with currently three of the ‘big four’ accountancy
unacceptable’.6 firms. Its standards advisory council, which is ‘committed
• PricewaterhouseCoopers paid the US government US$41.9m to pursuing high-quality international financial reporting
Christian Aid

to ‘resolve allegations’ that it defrauded numerous federal standards’, includes representatives of the ‘big four’, as well as
28 Death and taxes The haven experts 29 Death and taxes The haven experts

‘Accountancy firms too are engaged in price-fixing

cartels, tax avoidance/evasion, bribery and corruption,
and money laundering...’
Professor Prem Sikka, University of Essex

Microsoft’s chief accounting officer. schemes have been developed and touted for sale in the return for massive royalty charges. This previously unheard-of A critic writes
Microsoft was shown in a Wall Street Journal report in 2005 business world. definition led to the firm accruing more than US$20bn in royalty Prem Sikka is professor of accounting at the University of Essex
to have shifted patents and licences out of the US to its Irish A clamp down by the US and, to some extent, the UK has charges and making huge tax savings. and an acknowledged expert on accountancy firms’ abuses. He
subsidiary, which supplies the company’s software to most of the helped curb some of the more blatantly abusive ‘schemes’, but KPMG collected some US$6m for its efforts but the foresight says it is the rewards to be made from TNCs that have caused
world.15 Ireland only charges tax of 12.5 per cent on the profits to minimising tax on behalf of wealthy clients remains an integral of WorldCom’s top management was clearly not that good, for many of the problems.
be made, while most other countries would charge more. At the part of accountancy, with firms dismissing any suggestion that the company then went bust.18 Richard L Thornburgh, a former More than 50 of the 100 largest economies in the world
time, the Irish subsidiary, based in a law firm’s offices, was said the stratagems they devise may be socially irresponsible. US attorney general, who was appointed to investigate the are corporations, not countries, with the five largest having
to control US$16bn of the company’s assets, enabling it to avoid A KPMG partner writing recently in a financial magazine subsequent bankruptcy, concluded that KPMG ‘likely rendered combined sales greater than the gross domestic product
taxes on economic activities in many other countries. spelled out today’s accountancy realities. ‘A worrying tendency negligent and incorrect tax advice’ to the company, for which, (GDP) of the poorest 46 nations. The combined sales of
Chartered accountant Richard Murphy, an adviser to the seems to have emerged among external stakeholders to make he believed, the accountancy firm could be held liable.19 the top 200 corporations, meanwhile, are bigger than the
Tax Justice Network, says: ‘After Microsoft’s activities in Ireland “moral” judgements about tax planning and to expect companies It wasn’t the only criticism KPMG has attracted. In combined economies of all countries other than the ten most
were exposed, the company reregistered its subsidiary there to manage their tax affairs in a “moral” way,’ he writes. October 2002, the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on economically successful, and account for more than a quarter
as an unlimited company so they will never again have to ‘Let’s be clear about this. Tax is a cost to business. As with Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs of world economic activity. 24
publish their accounts. any other cost, the board members owe their shareholders a began an investigation into ‘the development, marketing, The accountancy firms that have helped engineer the
‘That’s a poor commitment to transparency and duty to manage that cost by the legal means afforded to them. and implementation of abusive tax shelters by accountants, emergence of the major corporations have grown into major
accountability from a company of its size, and hardly a Where a company’s tax philosophy is heavily influenced by lawyers, financial advisors and bankers’.20 The investigation players themselves in the process, and are now so large and
qualification for sitting on a body setting the rules for worldwide a duty to shareholders, the focus should be on responsible included an in-depth look at four schemes run by KPMG. powerful that the US$80bn combined global income of the ‘big
accounting.’ 16 management of tax cost.’ Senator Carl Levin, who headed the inquiry, said when the four’ alone is exceeded by the GDP of only 54 nations.25
The IASB says that in drawing up highly technical accounting The author adds that it seems to have become fashionable to findings were published: ‘Our investigations revealed a culture ‘Elected governments and host communities may be
standards, it wants the best technicians, and says it is not use terms such as ‘aggressive tax planning’ and ‘unacceptable of deception inside KPMG’s tax practice.’21 interested in eradicating poverty, promoting education, healthcare
surprising that some of these are found in the biggest firms. tax minimisation’ synonymously with ‘tax avoidance’, while An email his team obtained showed that a KPMG tax adviser and human rights, but corporations may not necessarily share
Board members, on joining, have to sever their links with the arguing that such practices demonstrate a lack of morality in had engaged in cost-benefit analysis of a potential breach of the those goals,’ says Professor Sikka.
commercial sector. tax matters. He argues that as ‘there is no agreement on what rules, and decided that the financial rewards outweighed the ‘In the search for competitive advantage, they have shown
It adds that it is committed to transparency. There is a constitutes morality either within or outside the sphere of tax’ penalties. The executive had noted that even if the regulators that they are willing to indulge in price-fixing, bribery, corruption,
prolonged public consultation period before new standards, or the term cannot be used to determine whether tax planning took action against their sales strategies over a tax shelter money laundering, tax avoidance/evasion and a variety of
changes to existing ones, are introduced, while any technical ‘has crossed some illusory line’.17 known as the Offshore Portfolio Investment Strategy (OPIS), antisocial activities that affect the lives of millions of citizens.
discussion involving five or more board members has to be Christian Aid disputes this analysis. It is fatuous to suggest the ‘average deal... would result in KPMG fees of US$360,000 ‘Accountancy firms too are engaged in price-fixing cartels,
open to the public. that simply because different people have different views of with a maximum penalty exposure of only US$31,000’.22 tax avoidance/evasion, bribery and corruption, and money
It is also considering setting up a monitoring body on morality, any moral critique is somehow invalidated. In the UK, the company was found to have cold-called laundering,’ he says.26
which representatives of organisations such as the European Contrary to the KPMG partner’s understanding, tax is not firms in an attempt to sell a tax-shelter scheme it knew would

Frank Casimiro/Rex Features

Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission in the a cost for a business but rather a distribution of profit and, as be disallowed. In its marketing prospectus, it said it believed
US, the International Organization of Securities Commissions such, should have no impact on the economic efficiency of HM Customs and Excise would challenge the arrangement
and other financial regulatory bodies will be invited to serve. firms. But it will affect the dividends a shareholder receives. as ‘unacceptable tax avoidance’. However, the prospectus
One of the body’s duties would be to endorse trustee Therein lies the crux of the problem. Company directors have a said, a similar scheme for telecommunications ‘ran for nearly
appointments. legal responsibility to maximise what shareholders receive. four years... before the EU amended primary legislation and
They can therefore argue that in fact they have a legal stopped the concept’. In 2005 the European Court of Justice
Cultural differences responsibility to ensure tax liabilities are as low as possible. If described the new scheme as ‘unacceptable’.23
Christian Aid is not suggesting that the half-million people other competing companies are using offshore secrecy or trade
worldwide who work for the ‘big four’, or the many thousands mispricing to avoid tax, the pressures on a company director or
of employees of smaller accountancy firms, are all by nature accountant to advise doing the same will be considerable.
lawbreakers. Far from it. One recent instance of KPMG planning for its clients saw
But with the ease of global financial transfers today, a it advising former US telecoms giant WorldCom that to avoid
culture has grown up in which accountants have pushed paying hundreds of millions of dollars in state taxes, it should The giant E, insignia of US energy group Enron, outside its
headquarters in Houston, Texas. Its lopsided appearance was
the boundaries of what is and what is not permissible with classify the ‘foresight of top management’ as an intangible prescient – the company went bankrupt when it was discovered that
aggressive ‘tax planning’. In recent years, ever more complex asset that the parent company could license to subsidiaries in huge losses had been hidden offshore
30 Death and taxes The haven experts 31 Death and taxes

‘The real issue is that these tax concessions are obscene.

Why should companies in SEZs pay no tax, while in India
we still don’t have money for universal schooling?’
Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Despite their social power, he adds, accountancy firms

are generally not subjected to ‘the disclosure requirements
The US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
of the Committee on Governmental Affairs looked into abusive India: tax-break
winners and losers
applicable to equivalent companies or public-sector bodies’. tax shelters, examining four KPMG schemes.31 It concluded that
He warns that looking to standard-setting agencies such they could not have worked without the participation of banks.
as the IASB to provide benchmarks for their accountability Deutsche Bank, HVB Bank and UBS Bank were named as
is unlikely to be productive as ‘major firms often provide providing ‘billions of dollars in lending critical to transactions
finance and personnel to such agencies and are able to stymie which the banks knew were tax-motivated, involved little or
threatening developments’. no credit risk, and facilitated potentially abusive or illegal tax
Domestic and international auditing standards, meanwhile, shelters’. NatWest was named in the same report as providing
are currently silent on the social obligations of accountancy firms. credit lines totalling more than US$1bn.32
‘Against the background of comparative secrecy, relatively Lawyers, too, were identified in the report as key players in
weak liability, accountability, regulatory, moral and ethical the tax-haven industry.
pressures, accountancy firms have become key players in the The activities of ‘some large, respected [US] law firms’
contemporary enterprise culture and have shown a willingness were also highlighted, with one found to have ‘provided legal
to indulge in questionable practices not only to increase their services that facilitated the development and sale of potentially Landless labourers work in the fields in Jhajjar district in Haryana state, where
Reliance Industries plans to develop a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Landless
clients’ but also their own profits,’ says Professor Sikka.27 abusive or illegal tax shelters’.33
labourers will get no compensation for losing their source of income
Clearly, accountancy has come a long way from the days

Christian Aid/Tom Pietrasik

when the Monty Python team lampooned it as ‘desperately dull
and tedious and stuffy and boring and des-per-ate-ly DULL’.28

The other facilitators

It is not only the accountancy firms, however, that facilitate
aggressive tax planning. Banks are also key players, as was
noted in a report earlier this year by the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which
states: ‘Much aggressive tax planning involves the use of
financial instruments...The more sophisticated the transaction,
the more sophisticated the financing may need to be. Those
instruments are largely obtained from banks.’ 29
In late 2001 US company Enron, one of the world’s leading
suppliers of electricity and natural gas, went bankrupt after
shares plummeted when a leading financial analyst questioned
the reliability of its reported earnings. It was subsequently
discovered that the company had lied about its profits, and
concealed debts and losses offshore so they did not show up
in the company accounts.
An inquiry by the US Senate Joint Committee on Taxation
into what happened stated that Enron ‘excelled at making
complexity an ally’.30 Many transactions used ‘exceedingly
complicated structures’ drawn up on the advice of
‘sophisticated and experienced lawyers, investment bankers,
and accountants’. Banks named as having provided their
services included Chase Manhattan, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup
and JP Morgan Chase and Co.
 32 Death and taxes India: tax-break winners and losers 33 Death and taxes India: tax-break winners and losers

‘This foregone tax revenue would be enough

to feed each year the 55 million people who
go to bed hungry in India every day.’
Aseem Shrivastava, economist

Bhagaban Soy, a 25-year-old Indian farmer, died trying to Activists say farmers are being forced off their land with The current Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said the Sini Soy, whose son was killed by police firing during protests against
prevent his land from being taken over for a huge steel works. little or no compensation to make way for big corporates tax concessions should be scrapped, and has other reservations Tata’s plan to build a steel plant in Jajpur district in Orissa
He was shot by police when they fired into a crowd of local building factories and industrial parks. Displacement is not a about SEZs. He wrote to cabinet colleagues outlining his

Christian Aid/Stuart Freedman

farmers protesting against the building of the plant by Tata, one new phenomenon in India: as many as 60 million people have concerns. ‘SEZs per se will distort land, capital, and labour cost,
of India’s biggest companies, in the poor east Indian state of had to leave their homes since 1950 because of development which will encourage relocation or shifting of industries in clever
Orissa in January 2006. projects, including huge dams such as the controversial ways that can’t be stopped. This will be further aggravated by
He was taken to hospital by the police, where his mother Narmada dam project in central India. Many have been ‘simply the proliferation of a large number of SEZs in and around
alleges his hands were chopped off. He died later the same day. left to fend for themselves without assistance from the state metros [India’s main urban areas],’7 he said.
‘When we got his body back, both his hands were that displaced them’.3 But India is pressing ahead with the SEZ policy, which
missing,’ says his mother Sini Soy, 50. ‘I am so angry at what Many activists who support farmers fighting to keep their was passed by Parliament in 2005, with 439 zones formally
happened. My son laid down his life for a cause and that must land concede that development will inevitably involve switching approved and 138 approved in principle.8 In contrast China now
be honoured. My house and small piece of land are in the area land from agricultural to industrial use. They campaign for better has only six large export-oriented industrial areas. Unlike in
where Tata wants to build its factory. But we will not sell – we policies on resettlement and rehabilitation for those who lose China, SEZs in India are privately owned and operated.
will not dishonour his memory.’ their land or income. Commerce and Industries Minister Kamal Nath says
Villagers in the area echo her feelings against Tata, which Meanwhile, the companies operating within SEZs are the SEZs will create four million jobs,9 badly needed in India,
wants to build a 3,000-acre steel plant in the Kalinga Nagar given huge tax breaks. Those doing so, or planning to do so, which has high rates of unemployment (7.2 per cent in 200710)
industrial area. include some of the biggest profit-making firms in India – such and a fast-growing population. He believes SEZs will attract
A total of 14 people died in the shootings, after which the plan as Reliance, Jindal Steel, Infosys and Tata – as well as big foreign direct investment (FDI), enable the transfer of modern concessions for the software industry are due to expire in 2009
was put on hold. But locals believe the steel plant will go ahead. international names such as Nokia. Tata’s revenues in 2006-07, technology and create incentives for infrastructure. The tax and many IT companies are trying to get SEZ status to continue
Rabindra Jarika, a farmer and head of the local association for instance, were £14bn – equivalent to some 3.2 per cent of issue is an unjustified fear, he adds, as the income that is not their tax holidays. Mr Shrivastava asks: ‘What is the point of
opposing the plant, says they do not want to end up like India’s gross domestic product (GDP).4 taxed would not be generated in the first place without the retroactive SEZ status apart from solely to give the company tax
other tribal people displaced by nearby factories and Special These companies get total tax exemption for the first five attraction of the SEZs. concessions? It cannot possibly be to generate jobs.’
Economic Zones (SEZs) – areas governed by special rules to years, 50 per cent for the next two years and up to 50 per But others do not see the need for SEZs in India’s already Only seven MPs took part in the debate when the SEZ Act
facilitate investment (including foreign direct investment) for cent exemptions on profits that are reinvested for another booming economy. was passed on May 9 2005, and some activists believe the
export-oriented production. SEZs are free-trade zones owned three years.5 ‘India had high rates of growth before the SEZs were law is unconstitutional. ‘The legislation is very clever. All the
and operated by private companies that are given generous tax The tax exemptions also apply to activities in the non- introduced, so why do we need them? In any case, much of the laws of the land apply, but Clause 49 empowers government
holidays and unlimited duty-free imports of raw, intermediate processing area of the SEZs, which could be up to 50 per cent investment in SEZs is likely to be at the expense of investment to suspend the application of the constitution should it get
and final goods. of the area of large zones. This implies that if shopping malls, in the rest of the economy,’ says Arun Kumar, professor of in the way of the SEZ,’ says Mr Shrivastava. ‘In effect the Act
Orissa is India’s poorest state.1 Says Mr Jarika: ‘Tribal amusement parks, residential homes or other luxury amenities economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New is unconstitutional and is being challenged in the courts by a
people (known in India as adivasis) are very attached to their are created in the non-processing part of the SEZs, they will not Delhi. ‘Some companies may even close down in other parts number of farmers’ groups.’
land. It cannot be bought with money or gold. We have seen be taxed. of the country to reinvest in an SEZ where they get the tax
the situation of the people displaced by eight other factories and It is not only activists who believe that the tax breaks within concessions. Why would any company want to work outside India’s booming economy leaves
SEZs near here and it is very bad. They have become beggars the SEZs are an outrageous kick in the face to the poorest an SEZ now?’ many behind
after being driven out. We are sure the government will apply people in India, where, according to the UK’s Department for Professor Kumar also believes there will be an increase in The Indian economy is booming, with a growth rate of 8.7 per
force to snatch our land and property but we are prepared to International Development (DFID), up to 400 million people smuggling of cheaper goods from the SEZs to the rest of the cent last year (2007-08), against 9.6 per cent and 9.4 per cent
fight them. Even if they kill 14,000 people we will not succumb.’ live in extreme poverty on less than US$1 a day and more than country, resulting in further tax revenue losses. ‘The resultant in the previous two years respectively. If these rates of growth
900 million on less than US$2 a day.6 revenue losses will aggravate the deficit in the budget and result are sustained, India will be the world’s fourth-largest economy
Biggest profit-makers get tax holidays The Indian Finance Ministr y has estimated SEZs in cutback in expenditure. Most of these cuts tend to be in the within 20 years.
SEZs are new to India (although Export Processing Zones will contribute a loss of 1,600bn rupees (£20bn) in tax revenue social sectors, which will worsen the situation for the poor.’ Indians are justifiably proud that their country is now being
existed previously) but have quickly caused controversy partly until 2010, thanks to exemptions from customs duties, income Some companies have been able to get SEZ status for an talked of in the same breath as China as an emerging world
because of the kind of violence seen in Kalinga Nagar, as well tax, sales tax, excise duties and service tax. This foregone existing plant, negating the argument that the purpose of an SEZ economic superpower. Newspapers are filled with reports of
as in Nandigram in the state of West Bengal, where at least tax revenue would be enough to feed each year the 55 million is to attract investment and create employment. This has been the soaring stockmarket, Indian companies taking over western
40 people reportedly died in 2007 during protests against a people who go to bed hungry in India every day, according the case for the Essar and Adani SEZs, in Gujarat, among others, rivals, and the massive success of the hi-tech sector in creating
planned chemical industry SEZ.2 One state – Goa – has even to Aseem Shrivastava, an independent economist according to Manshi Asher, an independent researcher and jobs for the emerging middle classes.
banned SEZs because of large-scale protests. researching SEZs. activist documenting the impacts of SEZs. A large number of tax But levels of poverty in India are staggering. One in three of
34 Death and taxes India: tax-break winners and losers 35 Death and taxes India: tax-break winners and losers

the world’s poorest people live in India.11 A quarter of global child land and what you do with that land,’ says Professor Ghosh.

Christian Aid/Stuart Freedman

deaths, one fifth of global maternal deaths and one fifth of all ‘The real issue is that these tax concessions are obscene.
new cases of tuberculosis occur in India.12 The child malnutrition Why should companies in SEZs pay no tax, while in India we
rate in India is double the African average.13 still don’t have money for universal schooling? We spend only
The progress made by India will have a significant effect on 4 per cent of GDP on education, instead of the aimed-for 6 per
whether the world as a whole is able to meet the eight United cent. If we had full payment of existing taxes we would have
Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These range enough money to properly educate our children or for a public
from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS health centre in every village.
and providing universal primary education, all by the target date ‘To give up such a huge amount of government resources
of 2015. The proportion of people living on less than US$1 a day is of course a major crime given the needs of Indian society
has been decreasing, but not fast enough to meet the MDGs today and in future. But once again, what is at stake is more
target, according to DFID. Even meeting the target would than the revenue losses, enormous as they are. Providing such
still leave around 250 million people in poverty by 2015. India massive tax giveaways encourages investors to shift their
is likely to meet the primary education targets, but is lagging production from other locations to SEZs, in order to benefit
behind on health-related MDGs. from the tax holiday. This means no net benefit to the economy
The poverty rate among the most marginalised communities from additional investment, since it is simply moving from
– such as dalits, those at the bottom of India’s caste system, other areas.’
and tribal people – remains very high. Activists, including Professor Ghosh concedes there is no guarantee that
Christian Aid, are concerned that even if India were to realise its greater tax revenues will automatically benefit the poorest. ‘In
MDGs, the plight of these people will not be addressed. terms of getting more tax revenue, there are two questions
Some economists claim that India’s rapid economic growth that need asking: will the regime allocate it and will the money
will eventually trickle down to help to lift millions out of poverty. reach those it is intended for? These are good questions. But if
However, others believe that while the upper and middle we do not have the resources in the first place then we don’t
classes are reaping the benefits of the economic boom the have the money to allocate. There is a strong lobby for SEZs
poor are becoming poorer. in government and from corporations. We are told India has
‘People are much poorer than the government statistics no choice because China is doing this. But China is not giving
indicate,’ says Professor Kumar. ‘Incomes may be rising, but these kinds of concessions.’
many services are proportionately more expensive, so net
poverty is increasing. Take healthcare for example. A study in India is biggest recipient of UK aid pledged to raise public spending in education to at least 6 per A steel works dominates the skyline in Jajpur district in Orissa where
Tata wants to build a new steel plant on the land of local farmers
Kerala (a southern Indian state) showed that between 1987 During a visit to India in January 2008, UK Prime Minister cent of GDP, but this has not yet been achieved.
and 1996 there was a 326 per cent rise in health costs for the Gordon Brown announced a new package of aid for India ‘The Indian government is giving away to companies, both
richest, but the rise for the poorest was 768 per cent.14 The worth more than £825m over three years, with £500m of Indian and multinational, amounts in foregone taxes that are and rehabilitation policy, according to which one person from
nature of poverty is also changing. The poor are moving from that dedicated to health and education. The money will train many times the amount in aid that the British government is each displaced family should be given a job. The necessary
rural to urban areas. So what they used to be able to get from 300,000 new teachers and build 300,000 new classrooms, presenting to India,’ says Professor Ghosh. legislation, however, has yet to be passed, while recent
the land is not available to them now. Urban poverty is much meaning four million more children will receive an education. For example Reliance Industries, India’s largest private- newspaper reports indicate that the government will lift the
harsher.’ India is the largest recipient of aid from the UK with £234m sector company with profits of US$2bn (£1.1bn) in 2006,will get 5,000 hectare limit.16 Reliance has anyway got around the size
Jayati Ghosh, also a professor of economics at JNU and from DFID in 2006-07 and about £1.04bn given over the past away with contributing nothing to the exchequer wherever it limit by splitting its SEZ into two parts.
director of Christian Aid partner organisation International five years (more than 90 per cent of this goes to the national operates within an SEZ.15 In the Jhajjar district of Haryana state, Satpal Numbardar, 55, from the village of Badli, which is
Development Economics Associates (IDEAs), says the tax or state governments). However, these figures pale into close to New Delhi, Reliance Industries has permission for a in the Reliance SEZ area, grows wheat and mustard on his
concessions in SEZs amount to huge subsidies to big industrial insignificance when compared to tax revenues lost through the ‘multi-product’ SEZ in the district that will displace 20-25,000 12 acres of land, which have been handed down through the
companies. SEZs of £20bn to 2010. people. It is thought it will be the largest SEZ in the country at generations. ‘Reliance wants to buy this land, but I don’t want to
‘People are rightly upset about the land-grabbing going on While Christian Aid welcomes the vital British aid to 25,000 acres (10,121 hectares). part with it,’ he says. ‘What would be the benefit for me? What
for SEZs. But we have to face the reality that there is going to be India, activists say it would be better if India could use funds In 2007 the government made changes to the SEZ policy is the benefit of the SEZ? The corporates get tax rebates but
change in land use as India develops. What is important is how generated by taxes from its own profit-making companies to in response to criticism, including limiting the area to 5,000 the common man won’t get anything. Even if the government
you compensate and rehabilitate those people who were on the help people out of poverty. The Indian government in 2004 hectares, and formulated a comprehensive resettlement and Reliance try to make us leave, we will not. We will protest
 36 Death and taxes India: tax-break winners and losers 37 Death and taxes India: tax-break winners and losers

‘Big business is grabbing the land from

the farming community, and farmers
are becoming landless and poor.’
Ramesh Sharma from Ekta Parishad, a Christian Aid partner

the same way as others have done. We will do anything to subsidy to the corporate sector will benefit about 1 per cent of Ahead of the Indian budget in February 2008, officials from shares of HEL [Hutchison Essar Limited]... these companies
protect our land. What else can I do apart from farming?’ the population while the subsidy to the poor is shared by about both countries met in the Mauritian capital, Port Louis, to look are no more than fictional entities.’
Fellow farmer Azad Singh, 70, from nearby Nimana village, 50 per cent of the population. Continuing with the SEZ policy and at changing the terms of the treaty. India is pushing to move On 11 March 2008 the case was adjourned by the
has 26 acres of land. ‘This is the most fertile land in Haryana. If not announcing any changes in it is also continuing the massive from a residence-based system of taxation to a source-based Bombay High Court until 23 June this year, because the Indian
farming land is gone there will be grave shortages of food. You concessions granted to the corporate sector,’ he says. system, meaning that investors from Mauritius would need government has introduced an amendment to the Finance Bill
can’t eat money. Farming is my ancestral profession and I will ‘Given the situation of the poor, a lot more needs to be done more than a pro forma registered office on the island to qualify in its annual budget. Once passed by Parliament, this would
hand it down to my sons. Reliance came to see me but I told but the government is not even able to fulfil its own expenditure for tax breaks. allow it to demand capital gains tax from the buyer rather than
them to leave. These people are lying. They might give us work targets. For instance, we are far from the goal of 6 per cent of India has offered to compensate Mauritius for the losses the seller if the seller cannot be taxed. Vodafone argues that
for one or two years then they will throw us out. People from GDP on education. We are not close to achieving at least 3 per if the treaty were to be renegotiated, with some newspaper this amendment shows it was not liable as the buyer under
outside will get the jobs. We are ready to protest and we are cent of GDP on health. reports saying it offered 5bn rupees (£62m). Analysts believe existing Indian law.
ready to die for this.’ ‘This year, rather than garner more resources for India would find it politically difficult to end the treaty. India’s case against Vodafone is particularly ironic as Gordon
Of great concern is the fact that landless labourers, substantially increasing the help to the marginalised, the Brown has included Vodafone on a list of 20 of the world’s
who will lose their income if the SEZ is built, will receive no government continues to give up resources by giving (or Vodafone goes to court biggest multinational companies recruited to help him put the
compensation at all. Even Indian government officials admit continuing) tax concessions to the well-off.’ However, the Indian government is fighting back in other ways international community back on course to achieve the UN
(off the record) that it is outrageous that those who do not own against what it sees as a charade of offshore tax avoidance. MDGs by 2015.
land – already the most vulnerable and often tribal people and Tax holiday on the beach It has demanded that Britain’s Vodafone, the world’s largest Richard Murphy, an adviser to the Tax Justice Network, says
dalits – get no compensation. SEZs and corporate tax subsidies are not the only way that mobile phone company, should pay what lawyers estimate the case has massive implications, not only for India.
Birmati, 50, from the village of Pelpa, earns about 100 companies in India avoid paying tax. Many companies turn to could be US$2bn (£1bn) in capital gains tax on its US$11bn ‘Companies are watching this closely and will not like what
rupees (£1.25) a day as a labourer in the fields. ‘If the SEZ the tiny Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. (£5.6bn) acquisition of Indian mobile phone operator Hutchison the Indian government is doing at all. But India is counting on
comes we will have nothing. We have no land so we do not get It is hard to believe that Mauritius, with a population of just Essar last year, from the Hong Kong-based group Hutchison. the fact that companies cannot afford to ignore the massive
any compensation. Reliance will not employ us. At least now 1.3 million and best known for its lagoons and palm-fringed Vodafone argues the transaction took place between offshore Indian market,’ he says.
we have work and we get paid.’ beaches, is the biggest foreign investor in India. It accounts entities owned by itself and Hutchison and was outside India’s ‘Vodafone may win on a technicality to do with the new
Christian Aid partner organisations work to help the rural for nearly half of all FDI inflows to India.17 From April 2000 to jurisdiction. It also argues any tax liability lies with the Hong Kong amendment but if the Indian government wins, it could bring
poor, particularly the landless, in their struggle to acquire December 2007, FDI inflows from the island republic stood at group as the seller, not with Vodafone as the buyer. about a radical shift away from tax avoidance. Why should it be
or keep their small pieces of land from being taken by big US$20.1bn (£10bn), nearly 45 per cent of total inflows of nearly The Indian tax department is seeking to show that since that because a company is registered in the Cayman Islands or
business. In 2007 Christian Aid partner Ekta Parishad organised US$51bn (£26bn) during the period.18 most of the assets were in India, the deal is liable for Indian Mauritius no tax is due?’
a 200-mile march of 25,000 people from central India to New This is not because Mauritius in itself is an overpowering capital gains tax. It also argues that under Indian law, the buyer
Delhi to demand the government give land to the landless and economy, rather because the island is an ideal route for is required to withhold any capital gains tax liability and to pay it
form a land plan for the country. investments into India. Most of the money flowing through to the treasury if the seller cannot be taxed.
‘Eighty per cent of SEZs are located on prime agricultural

Christian Aid/Stuart Freedman

Mauritius is from companies operating in India, who register an In essence, India is arguing for a source-based rather than
land and this is directly affecting the food security of the office on the island precisely in order to avoid paying tax. residence-based capital gains tax system, which means that
country, which can only get worse as more SEZs open,’ says The Double Taxation Avoidance Act (DTAA) between a transaction is taxed where it happens rather than where the
Ramesh Sharma of Ekta Parishad. ‘Big business is grabbing the India and Mauritius means Mauritian tax residents without person undertaking it is located. India is arguing that the value
land from the farming community, and farmers are becoming a permanent establishment in India are not taxed in India on of the deal was made in India by Indian consumers buying and
landless and poor.’ capital gains from the sale of shares of an Indian company. using mobile phones, and that India should get a return on this
This allows Mauritian tax residents to avoid capital gains tax of through capital gains tax.
Subsidies for the rich between 10 and 40 per cent, which would be payable under Vodafone has appealed to the Bombay High Court against
India’s policy of a favourable tax regime for corporates continued domestic Indian tax laws. the tax demand. According to court papers seen by Christian
in the 2008 budget, with Professor Kumar estimating that Companies can establish Mauritian tax residency under Aid, the Indian government argues that: ‘...the contention that
subsidies given to the corporate sector through concessions the DTAA simply by obtaining a tax residence certificate from [the] transaction took place outside of India by a non-resident
on income tax, corporate tax, excise duty and customs duty the government of Mauritius, which requires that at least two with another non-resident in respect of the transfer of shares
now equal 2,780bn rupees (£34.7bn) each year. directors are resident in Mauritius, a bank account is maintained of a company which is also a non-resident and consideration is
‘In contrast, the direct subsidies to the poor, like on food, in Mauritius and a Mauritius auditor is appointed. paid and received outside India is too simplistic [an] assertion...
Farmer Rabindra Jarika is refusing to sell his land toTata, which
employment guarantee schemes and housing, do not amount to Indian tax officials say the treaty costs the exchequer more It may also be noted that the companies located in the Cayman wants to build a steel plant in Orissa. He says: ‘Even if they kill 14,000
500bn rupees (£6bn). The disparity is glaring considering that the than 40bn rupees (£500m) each year in foregone revenue.19 Islands and Mauritius were primarily incorporated to hold the people we will not succumb’
38 Death and taxes 39 Death and taxes Why paying tax is good for you

‘Broad taxation, to a far greater extent than either aid

or natural-resource revenues, obliges the state to invest
in the creation of a relatively reliable, uncorrupt,
professional-career public service to assess and collect
dues and then hand them over to the state treasury.’
Mick Moore, professorial fellow at UK-based independent research charity the Institute of Development Studies

Why paying tax Secrecy and bribes are the twin curses of countries in the
developing world that are rich in natural resources. Together
can develop, political accountability is distorted and patronage
practices reinforced.

is good for you

they ensure most citizens see precious little benefit from the Tax revenues can and should be used to benefit the
oil or minerals extracted. population as a whole. Norway, for instance, pays revenue from
The lack of transparency about the deals struck between the its North Sea oil into a social fund for the future from which old-
transnational corporations (TNCs) and the politicians and age pensions will be met. Alaska routinely pays its citizens
government officials responsible for the country’s natural wealth dividends from money paid by oil and gas companies.
serves the interests of both parties at the negotiating table. Such schemes may be inappropriate in poorer countries

Christian Aid/Paul Botes

The mining or drilling companies do not have to reveal where capital is scarce, but if companies paid royalties and
publicly the price they are paying for commodities extracted. taxes in a transparent manner, civil-society organisations could
The state representatives they deal with – their goodwill bought bring pressure to bear on governments for money to be
by bribes – can without fear of exposure agree terms that may properly invested in infrastructure, health and education.
be greatly disadvantageous to their country. In a bid to counter the unholy alliance of big business and
The corruption goes far beyond the payment of a few corrupt officialdom in the developing world, the Extractive
backhanders. All too often it ends up corroding the country’s Industries Transparency Initiative was launched in 2002 to
entire body politic. It is no accident that developing countries encourage companies to be open about the payments they
with the greatest abundance of natural resources have the make to governments.
worst forms of governments: tyrannical and corrupt. Its aim is to allow a country’s population to monitor the
Governments that are able to function thanks to monies benefits supposedly accruing from the extractive industries
made from natural resources, without having to look elsewhere and enable civil-society organisations to uncover any corruption
for funds, are effectively accountable to no one but themselves, in the use of the revenues. Crucially, however, companies still
and will often use their unearned wealth to keep matters do not have to reveal how much profit they make or how much
that way. they pay in taxes.
The states most susceptible to what has been called the
‘resource curse’ are those that lack the institutions necessary No taxation without representation
to counter endemic corruption, such as an apolitical police The political landscape changes in countries where government
force, independent judiciary, free and fair electoral process and revenues are largely derived from the taxing of citizens in a fair
an unfettered press. and equitable way.
Mick Moore, professorial fellow at UK-based independent Rulers dependent on taxes have a direct stake in the
research charity the Institute of Development Studies, says that prosperity of some or most of their citizens, and ‘therefore
cross-national statistical analysis shows that natural resource have incentives to promote that prosperity’, says Moore.2
wealth tends ‘consistently’ to depress the level of democracy.1 He adds: ‘Broad taxation, to a far greater extent than either
‘Governments sitting on large mineral wealth want to stay aid or natural-resource revenues, obliges the state to invest
in power and naturally assume that plenty of other people are in the creation of a relatively reliable, uncorrupt, professional-
keen to displace them, probably by force,’ he says. ‘That career public service to assess and collect dues and then hand
motivates high expenditures on military, police, intelligence them over to the state treasury.’
services, the general militarisation of politics and exclusionary Citizens being taxed, meanwhile, will engage politically,
governance.’ either by organising to resist taxation or to ensure their tax
Impoverished countries, of course, attract aid, but research money is well used. Unless the sole response of the state
has shown that aid can also damage the social fabric, making is to crush resistance ‘these reactions tend to increase the
states more accountable to donors than to their citizens. accountability of governments’.3
The money means that recipient governments are under Recent research pooling data from 113 countries between
much less pressure to maintain popular legitimacy and are 1971 and 1997 found evidence that it was the need for greater
therefore less likely to cultivate and invest in effective public tax revenue that forced governments (even authoritarian ones)
Out of reach: Angola’s oil riches, lying just institutions. A ‘strong president, weak parliament’ syndrome to democratise.4
offshore, fail to benefit most of the population
40 Death and taxes Why paying tax is good for you 41 Death and taxes Why paying tax is good for you

The finding that citizens who are taxed become more • Revenue: governments need taxes to provide systems of Systemic failings 3. Set an unambitious target for tax revenues. The consensus
engaged politically does not take account of those who, once health, education and social security. They are also necessary It is not solely the activities of TNCs and corrupt governments says that governments should aim to raise 15-20 per cent of
wealthy, seek to protect their fortunes through tax minimisation. as the basis for a successful economy through regulation, that are denying the developing world a future. their gross domestic product (GDP) through tax, although
But it does underline one of the most important characteristics administration and investments in infrastructure. Rich governments and international financial institutions revenues in the EU-15 average in excess of 30 per cent.10 By
of what a tax system can and should deliver. These are known • Redistribution: taxes should reduce poverty and inequality, lending or donating money are also playing their part in keeping setting the bar so low, there has been little pressure on the rich
as the four Rs.5 and ensure that the benefits of development are felt by all. poorer countries trapped in a cycle of poverty. In their case, elites in poor countries to contribute more to the economy,
• Representation: by paying taxes, people not only contribute • ‘Re-pricing’: taxes can be used to deal with related social however, it is not through the search for profits or criminality and little incentive for governments to bring that pressure to
to building a strong state that can deliver development but problems, for example, taxing carbon emissions to tackle but rather through a lack of understanding about the workings bear. Revenues have failed to climb above around 10 per cent
they also become agents in the process of development climate change or taxing tobacco to limit damage to health. of the economies in which they dabble. of GDP in many low-income countries compared to more than
– holding governments to account for the way the money Developed countries have a long history of seeking to 40 per cent in the UK.
is spent and, over time, supporting the emergence and influence the way taxes are raised in nations that owe them
strengthening of democratic structures. Direct taxation of money. In Egypt in 1878, when the country was saddled with Christian Aid believes there should be a fundamental
incomes and profits has been shown to be the major channel enormous foreign debt, a British tax expert was imposed as reassessment of tax policy by donors, including the World
in this process. Minister of Finance. Bank and IMF, if there is to be any chance of the United Nations
Within two years, British companies had grabbed 70 per Millennium Development Goals being met.
cent of the country’s trade.6 Governments in the developing world must be allowed
Democratic Republic of Congo: an abundance of mineral riches
has led to years of conflict and corruption. In 2006, the government So it has been ever since, with the experts on hand to implement tax regimes appropriate to their circumstances
reportedly received just US$86,000 from mineral rights generally reflecting the economic hue of whichever country if they are to achieve the protection, infrastructure and basic
they happen to come from. In the early 1980s, with Britain and services needed to create the right kind of environment for

Linsey Addario/Corbis
the US championing the open market, those countries to which sustained development.
they were providing loans and assistance were told that money In the words of the campaign group Tax Justice Network:
was conditional on them, too, embracing free enterprise. ‘The whole range of issues referred to in the Millennium
The economics of wealthy countries do not suit all economies. Development Goals cannot be tackled unless developing
Nonetheless, there is a consensus among richer nations as to how countries secure their own tax revenues.
the developing world should levy tax. The three main components ‘This will free them from aid dependence, and help countries
of this consensus are:7 determine their own futures and chart their own route out of
poverty. Securing the revenues might at the same time create
1. Tax neutrality. The tax system should not distort production the political accountability that is the other essential component
or consumption decisions, a doctrine that leads inexorably to in this process.’11
trade liberalisation, which can be inappropriate in vulnerable
economies.
2. Tax expenditure. Low-income countries have been advised
to impose VAT on expenditure rather than raise income.
This has resulted in deepening inequality. For example, it is
estimated that the poorest in Brazil spend 26.5 per cent of
their income on VAT, while the richest spend 7.3 per cent.8
International Monetary Fund (IMF) researchers have shown
that countries advised to use VAT to recoup revenues
lost through the lifting of trade tariffs were only able to
replace around 30 per cent.9 Furthermore, a just use of VAT
presupposes that governments will use financial transfers,
such as benefits, to compensate the poor for the new
levies. Low-income countries, however, notably much of
sub-Saharan Africa, simply do not have the wherewithal to
provide such support to their poorest citizens.
 42 Death and Taxes
taxes 43 Death and taxes Peru and Bolivia: a tale of two tax systems

‘The
‘Quote priceor of introductory
minerals is very copyhigh here.atSet thein moment,
18/18ptbut Serifa
the justified,
with single
country is basically
quotation giving
markaway in margin.
gold, copper
Ensure and thatsilver,
colour is legible
against
as it didbackground.
in previous centuries.’Background colours should be either solid CA
red, Black,
Father Miranda or tints
of Health Houses, of black’
a local health and education non-governmental organisation in Peru
Dr M Rafique Islam of the Bangladesh Intergovernmental Coastal Zone Management body

Peru and Bolivia: ‘Sometimes my children cry when I go in the morning, and I
feel so bad. But what can I do? There just isn’t enough money if
part of its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals.
The prevailing view among donor governments and lending

a tale of two tax systems

I don’t go out to the fields,’ says Wilma Tarqui. She is describing institutions has been that private-sector development is the
the daily 4am ritual of leaving her two small children with the best way to fuel improvements in these areas.
neighbour who looks after them until she returns from the Campaigners in Peru point out, however, that strong growth
asparagus fields 12 hours later. and export figures do not necessarily mean improved living
Like many of her neighbours, Wilma came to the coastal conditions for the poor. The asparagus boom in Ica is a case in
region of Ica, in Peru, from the mountains of Ayacucho, where point. In Ica, the positive macroeconomic figures hide the fact
the civil war with Maoist rebels in the 1980s and ’90s was at its that the exports boom is not improving the lives of the poorest:
most intense. Thousands of people fled to the coast to build a they are forced to work in sub-standard conditions.
new life. Labour Programme of Development is a local non-
This influx of people coincided with a decision in the US to governmental organisation that has carried out a detailed study
subsidise the fledgling asparagus industry in Ica, ostensibly of the asparagus industry. Spokesman Jorge Choqueneira says:
to encourage alternatives to the cultivation of coca, the ‘Extreme poverty is far from being eradicated and the region is
raw material for cocaine. In 1991, the US lifted the tariff on even further from achieving the Millennium Development Goals.’
asparagus imports, opening an enormous new market for
the premium vegetable, which local entrepreneurs have now Health crisis
A worker stoops to pick asparagus in Ica, Peru. Despite the heat, she is completely effectively cornered.1 Victoria Sardon runs the government health centre for the
covered, to protect herself from sunburn and from skin irritation caused by insecticides
In 2000, legislation was passed in Peru to encourage the district of Señor de Luren, where Wilma and her family

Christian Aid/Ana Cecilia Gonzales-Vigil

asparagus industry even more. Law number 27360 stipulates live. Children are often left alone in their houses to fend for
a profits tax rate of just 15 per cent for agricultural exporters, themselves while their parents work in the fields, she says.
which is half the national average paid by other industries. ‘When children are left alone, sometimes they simply don’t eat.
Agrokasa, the largest Peruvian asparagus company, has seen It is the biggest health concern we have in this area.’
its asparagus exports grow rapidly over the past ten years. In In the shantytown near the clinic, a group of three children
1998, it exported 67,163 boxes weighing 5kg each, compared ranging in age from two to nine years, sit on a piece of carpet
to 2.67 million in 2007.2 laid down on the bare earth. Their ‘house’ is a flimsy structure
Nearly all the asparagus sold in Britain, apart from the of canvas pieces stretched across an insubstantial wooden
produce of a very short English growing season in May and frame. They are sharing a bowl of watery soup. The eldest,
June, is now flown in from Peru.3 This year-round supply and Luz Marina Chaoca, says both their parents work in the fields
relatively cheap production costs have made asparagus one of picking grapes until six in the evening. She is at school in the
Peru’s most successful agricultural exports. The Ica region, the mornings, but comes home at lunchtime to keep her siblings
centre of the country’s asparagus industry, now accounts for company.
40 per cent of Peru’s total agricultural production.4 In the nearby town of Huánuco, there are more than 500
This expansion helped increase Peru’s economic growth by families, but just four nursery schools catering for a mere 36
10 per cent last year.5 But tax breaks, combined with a lack of children.
political will to redistribute wealth, mean that very little of this In August 2007 the region of Ica was struck by an 8.0
new prosperity reaches the poorest people in Ica, those who magnitude earthquake. More than six months on thousands of
need it most. In fact, some health indicators in Ica linked to families are still living in makeshift shelters constructed out of
poverty indicate a worsening situation. The number of children donated canvas and straw mats. The government’s rebuilding
with chronic malnutrition has doubled since 2002 to 15 per cent, efforts have been extremely patchy.
and Ica now has the second-highest incidence of tuberculosis Father Jose Manuel Miranda, who runs a medical charity
in the country.6 called Health Houses, which is supported by Christian Aid, says:
Throughout the developing world, affordable healthcare ‘There is very little thought given here to the most marginalised
and education are among the most pressing needs of the people. Public investment in roads and services rarely reaches
poor. The UK government is prioritising aid in these areas as the poorest.’
44 Death and taxes Peru and Bolivia: a tale of two tax systems 45 Death and taxes Peru and Bolivia: a tale of two tax systems

‘The tax regime is terribly generous to the mining companies.

If you are paying no royalties, then basically you are getting
the sub-soil and its materials for free.’
Professor Anthony Bebbington, Manchester University

Health Houses provides dispensaries and laboratories to when he was six months old. Like nearly everyone else in the The mining industry now accounts for more than half the Professor Anthony Bebbington of Manchester University
test for common illnesses. It has also helped with building community, she leaves her children with neighbours from 4am country’s export revenues and, especially as the world price worked with the Peru Support Group, a Christian Aid partner
materials for more nurseries and play parks in the poorest until she returns at about 4pm. of minerals soars, it has the potential to contribute hugely to organisation, in 2007 to compile a report into mining and
communities. Apart from the back-breaking work, the conditions in which Peru’s economic development. World prices of copper have development. The report warns that ‘Peru is essentially giving
Elizabeth Patcheco lives near Wilma in the San Martin the family live are far from healthy. ‘When the rain falls, it makes roughly quadrupled over the past ten years, while those of gold away its resources.’13
settlement in the Señor de Luren district. Sitting on her bed, the bed wet,’ says Monica. She has gallstones and doctors say and silver have trebled.8 ‘The tax regime is terribly generous to the mining
which rests on bare earth inside the ubiquitous temporary she should have them removed. But the operation costs 500 However, there is a growing sense that the country is not companies,’ says Professor Bebbington. ‘If you are paying no
canvas structure, she says: ‘We don’t really have enough soles (£91), which is about a month’s wages – far more than getting a fair share of the rapidly rising value of its mineral royalties, then basically you are getting the sub-soil and its
money, even with both of us working. I try to buy milk for she can afford. She also has problems with her appendix. ‘The wealth. Critics argue that foreign mining companies are doing materials for free.’
the children when I can, but we cannot afford red meat, only doctor says if it ruptures, I could die,’ she adds. extraordinarily well out of Peru’s mineral deposits, while a large Mining profits became an issue in Peru’s 2006 presidential
chicken occasionally.’ proportion of Peruvians remain in extreme poverty. election campaign, when candidate Alan Garcia pledged to
Now 26, Elizabeth had her first child aged 17 and has had two A rich seam Grupo Propuesta Ciudadana (Citizen’s Advocacy Group) is a renegotiate the government’s contracts with mining companies.
more since. Her youngest is two. Between them she and her Peru’s mining industry is less visible to UK consumers than Peruvian pressure group that this year published an extensive However, after becoming president, he argued that any
husband each earn 120 soles (£22) a week. Paying a neighbour its asparagus exports, but in economic terms it is far more study into the mining industry. It says that the country is renegotiation would cause legal problems for the country.
to look after her children costs 25 soles (£4.50) a week. important. The country is the world’s second-largest producer allowing itself to be seriously short-changed. ‘We have proved Most of the biggest mining firms operating in Peru are
‘We have to struggle to keep going. I’d like to start over in of silver and the sixth-largest producer of gold and copper. It is that the companies are getting the largest benefit from the thought to have ‘legal stability contracts’ with the government,
Chile, but I cannot leave my children until they are older,’ she also a major producer of zinc and lead.7 extraordinary profits and the state must find a way of taking a which effectively exempt them from paying any further royalties
adds. Things are even tighter at the moment because her larger share of these revenues,’ says the report.9 for at least ten years. Instead of renegotiating the contracts,
husband has tuberculosis and is not able to work. In 2007, Peru’s total mineral production was worth some President Garcia announced that mining companies would be
Monica Misayco also works in the asparagus fields. She is Elizabeth Patcheco has just returned to her makeshift house in an £11bn. The tax revenue from mineral production was £2bn.10 asked for a ‘voluntary contribution’ of 3 per cent of their after-tax
earthquake-damaged shanty town after 12 hours, working in the
23 and has two sons aged three years and eight months. She asparagus fields of Ica, Peru. Her wages are vital as her husband At 17 per cent, this was significantly less than Peru’s standard profits while mineral prices remain high. It will generate some
had to stop working for the birth of her second son and returned can’t work because he has tuberculosis profit tax rate of 30 per cent. revenue for the government – an estimated US$175m in 2007.14
An analysis of the profits from the Yanacocha mine – the But this 3 per cent seems like a drop in the ocean given

Christian Aid/Ana Cecilia Gonzales-Vigil

second-largest gold mine in the world – shows the kind of that the market value of Peru’s mineral production has soared
money the mining companies have been making. In 2007 it by several hundred per cent over the past few years. Mineral
cost US$345 to produce an ounce of gold,11 which by March prices will not remain high forever and the deposits are finite
this year was worth US$1,000.12 With costs of 35 per cent, and – they will eventually be fully exploited.
taxes of 17 per cent, it would appear that the company’s after- ‘The price of minerals is very high at the moment, but the
tax profits amounted to 48 per cent of total mining revenue. country is basically giving away gold, copper and silver, as it did
Richard Murphy, a chartered accountant and senior adviser in previous centuries,’ says Father Miranda of Health Houses.
to the campaign group Tax Justice Network, says: ‘It is obvious The problem of relying too heavily on profits tax is further
that there is something seriously wrong [in Peru]. No mine highlighted by two lengthy disputes between Peru’s tax
should be getting a 48 per cent after-tax profit rate. If they are, authorities and Barrick Gold Corporation, a Canada-based
the balance of rewards in Peru is inappropriate.’ company, which runs two gold mines in Peru. In September
Many countries in the developing world would rather obtain 2004, the company won its appeal in the Tax Court of Peru
revenues from the mining industry by imposing royalties on against a tax demand of US$32m. However, Barrick is now
the market value of a company’s production. Profit taxes are involved in a new dispute with SUNAT, Peru’s tax authority,
more difficult to collect because profit figures can be easily which is demanding US$49m in taxes it claims are owed for the
manipulated. years 2001 to 2003, plus interest and penalties of US$116m. The
But unlike other countries in Latin America that have company is appealing against the demand to the Tax Court.15
successfully secured royalty rates of 50 per cent and more, If world mineral prices remain at an historic high, then
Peru has allowed mining companies to pay between 1 and 3 questions about whether Peru is getting a fair deal from mining
per cent, with most companies negotiating exemptions from companies are not going to go away.
even that low rate.
 46 Death and taxes Peru and Bolivia: a tale of two tax systems 47 Death and taxes Peru and Bolivia: a tale of two tax systems

‘We have been sitting on a throne of gold and putting

our hands out for charity. Charging a fair price to extract
our natural resources is a lot fairer.’
Pastora Condorena Ticona, a community worker in El Alto, Bolivia

Bolivia: a different way Clearly, the extra revenue from hydrocarbons and minerals investors. Because of the huge investment involved in Miguel Querta Callegas used to be a builder. But at 78
Next door to Peru, Bolivia had adopted a much more aggressive taxes has given the fledgling Morales government more exploration, there is a great deal of foreign involvement in the years, he found it hard to get work. So he turned to shoe-
approach to tax collection after it was discovered that there resources to address social problems. As its electoral base sector. Along with Brazilian and Spanish companies, British Gas shining in El Alto. As a builder, Miguel earned about 1,200
were 24 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves under the was largely drawn from the poorest sections of society, it had a and BP have substantial investments in Bolivian fields. bolivianos (£80) a month. Shining shoes, he can earn little more
soil.16 The estimated value of this resource in the current market strong political incentive too. The oil companies warn that it is becoming less profitable to than 80 bolivianos (£5) a month, or £60 a year. So the £160 he
is US$228bn (£114bn). In 2006, Bolivia exported US$2.03bn invest in exploration, so production is likely to fall in the medium gets annually from La Renta Dignidad, instead of £120 from the
(£1.03bn) worth of gas.17 Progress on poverty term. It is certainly the case that production is falling short of previous benefit, makes a significant difference. His 80-year-old
After centuries of seeing its tin, silver and gold reserves Bolivia is South America’s poorest country with 70 per cent demand already, says Carlos Arze, a gas-industry expert at the wife is at home. The couple could not survive independently
mined by foreign concerns that took most of the profits abroad, of its 8.4 million inhabitants living in poverty and 25 per cent Research Centre for Agrarian and Labour Development, a La without La Renta Dignidad. The burden of looking after them
the discovery of yet another extremely valuable commodity malnourished.20 It is too early for United Nations statistics to Paz thinktank that Christian Aid supports. would fall on their children.
in the poorest country in South America sparked a political reflect improvements in rates of tuberculosis and malnutrition But this is mainly because of a game of brinkmanship being Tula Cordova, 64, lives with her granddaughter and has just
movement for change. A groundswell of Bolivian public opinion across Bolivia. But Martha Mejia, a paediatrician working for played by the transnational companies, he adds. Although it started receiving the pension. As her husband died three years
was mobilised by Evo Morales, who was elected president in a branch of the UN World Health Organization in the Bolivian would be highly profitable for them to pump more oil, they are ago, it is very important, allowing her to pay her way. Under the
December 2005 with a mandate to renegotiate contracts with capital of La Paz, says there has definitely been a paradigm shift in no hurry to do so. They believe that if they wait long enough, previous system, she would have received nothing until she
the hydrocarbons industry. in the way local authorities are addressing the health needs of it will put pressure on the government to negotiate more reached 65.
The most significant change was the increase in the the population. Local health posts are now handing out nutrient favourable terms. Before the government revised the state pension, it was
percentage of royalty charged on gas exports. Previously, packs to families, containing vitamin and mineral supplements, Reluctantly, at the eleventh hour, most of the companies not uncommon for families to abandon their elderly relatives,
oil companies operating in Bolivia, including British Gas and to combat malnutrition. signed operating contracts with the Bolivian state company says Pastora Condorena Ticona, a community worker in El Alto.
BP, were charged royalties under a complicated system. The ‘The government definitely seems to be on the right track. It Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB). But the ‘We have had a long struggle to get back the rights to our
average amount paid was 25 per cent of the value of gas is better than many other countries where I have worked,’ says transnational companies operating in Bolivia are highly critical natural resources. Many people have died along the way. But it
pumped, though this percentage was falling every year.18 Dr Mejia. Statistics for La Paz show that both chronic and acute of the regulatory and distribution role now played by YPFB. is finally being recognised that Bolivia is a rich country.’
Morales signed decree number 28701 to the Hydrocarbons malnutrition have fallen since the year 2000.21 Ronald Fessy Malaga, spokesman for the Camera Boliviana She speaks for many of the poorest when she says: ‘We
Law, creating a new system requiring nearly every field to pay The new gas tax revenue is also paying for a new form de Hidrocarburos (a professional body representing drilling have been sitting on a throne of gold and putting our hands out
a 50 per cent royalty. By raising the royalties charged, the total of child benefit to those attending primary school. At 200 companies), sums up the prevailing attitude: ‘To fly a plane you for charity. Charging a fair price to extract our natural resources
amount of tax collected in Bolivia rose from 15bn bolivianos bolivianos (£13.50) a year, the Juancito Pinto payment does not need a pilot, not a gardener. If this problem can be solved, the is a lot fairer.’
(roughly £1bn) in 2005 to 23bn bolivianos (roughly £1.5bn) in seem like a great deal of money, but for the poorest it makes a industry will fly like a plane again in five years’ time.’

Christian Aid/Ana Cecilia Gonzales-Vigi

2007. The amount coming into the treasury from gas royalties difference. Albertina Quispe has four children aged between 6 There is some justification for this attitude: a series of forced
rose from 15 per cent to 26 per cent of total revenues.19 and 17. She says it means she can buy better-quality notebooks resignations at high levels inYPFB in the early days of the Morales
Roberto Ugarte, vice-minister in charge of taxation in the for her younger children and put something away for Christmas government seriously held up crucial exploration projects.
Bolivian finance ministry, says it was a conscious decision to presents. Living in El Alto, the sprawling slum above La Paz But the political will to improve the lives of the poorest
increase the level of royalties in comparison with profits taxes. where many migrants from the countryside have settled, is not cannot be denied. Another significant innovation paid for with
He agrees that oil and gas companies generally favour profits easy. At nearly 4,000 metres above sea level, it is a forbidding the new gas revenues is a much-improved state pension. The
taxes because it is relatively easy to disguise profits. It is not place. Albertina has two nieces aged six and nine who were Morales government introduced La Renta Dignidad, which was
so easy to disguise the amount of a commodity that is being orphaned at a young age and now live with their grandmother, paid monthly from age 60 and amounted to 2,400 bolivianos a
pumped, explains Mr Ugarte. ‘Before we passed the new tax her mother. At first the family could not afford any furniture for year (£160).
law, almost all the companies were declaring losses,’ he says. the girls, but the Juancito Pinto gave them enough money to Previously, the state pension was 1,800 bolivianos (£120) a
The profits tax charged to the hydrocarbons sector has buy a bed. year, payable in a lump sum annually from age 65. With average
remained unchanged, at 25 per cent. Government figures suggest that primary-school enrolment life expectancy in Bolivia also standing at 65, significantly more
In the Bolivian mining sector, which has also seen enormous rose by nearly 10 per cent between 2006 and 2007 as a result people are able to claim the new benefit. There are currently
windfalls as the prices of precious metals climb ever higher of the cash incentive.22 676,009 Bolivians receiving La Renta Dignidad, compared with
on the world market, the government adopted a different the 488,561 who received the previous pension.
approach. Instead of raising the royalties, since December On the brink The difference of £40 a year may seem insignificant, but the
2007 the government has imposed a windfall-profits tax of The Bolivian approach to oil and gas taxation is not universally Bolivian minimum wage is 550 bolivianos (£38) a month and many Miguel Querta Callegas, 78, used to be a builder, but no one will hire
him now. He shines shoes in El Alto, the shanty town above La Paz,
12.5 per cent on top of the existing profits tax of 25 per cent, to popular, however. Affluent Bolivians, who are not so reliant of the poorest subsistence farmers earn much less than that. It is Bolivia, to earn what he can.The new pension, made possible by the
garner some more revenue from the most productive mines. on state benefits, fear that higher taxation will deter overseas also much easier to budget when you get a monthly payout. rise in gas revenues, helps him and his 80-year-old wife to survive
48 Death and taxes 49 Death and taxes Recommendations

Until international steps are taken to curtail these aspects

of global finance, poorer countries will remain stuck in the
poverty trap, unable to pursue effective tax policies that
would help them break free.

Recommendations Massive amounts of money are leeched from the developing

world each year by businesses engaged in aggressive tax
avoidance schemes and tax evasion. Two methods of evasion
obstacle to the economic development of poor countries.
Donor governments and international financial institutions have
in recent years imposed a highly restrictive ‘tax consensus’
alone – transfer mispricing and falsifying invoices – involve that has prevented countries from choosing tax systems most
sums that, if taxed, would raise US$160bn a year in revenue. appropriate to their needs.
This is several times larger than the extra US$40-60bn the This consensus includes trade liberalisation, lower taxation
World Bank estimates poor countries will need annually to for foreign investors and the imposition of VAT, which latter
meet all the United Nations Millennium Development Goals feature hurts the poor most. It has demonstrably failed to deliver
(MDGs), which aim to halve poverty by 2015.1 revenues, wealth sharing or an improved political climate.
The sum is also more than one-and-a-half times the amount Christian Aid believes that the creation of effective and fair
the developing world receives each year in aid. In healthcare taxation systems in the developing world is the only way that
alone, at current spending patterns in poor countries, the poor countries can end their dependence on aid and stand on
revenue would save the lives of an estimated 350,000 children their own feet economically. Tax revenue, compared to monies
under the age of five each year, 250,000 of them babies. from all other quarters, including profits from finite natural
This draining of money is allowed to go unchallenged resources, is recognised as the only sustainable way of funding
because of the permissive regulatory climate surrounding development.
global transfers of cash into jurisdictions offering financial Effective taxation is also key to raising the sums of money
secrecy (‘tax havens’), and the ability of international businesses necessary to achieve the MDGs. And fair (as opposed to
to exploit the limited capacity of domestic tax authorities. coercive) taxation has a fundamental part to play in building a
Until international steps are taken to curtail these aspects of strong state and making it accountable to its citizens, thereby
global finance, poorer countries will remain stuck in the poverty helping ensure genuine political representation and good
trap, unable to pursue effective tax policies that would help governance.
them break free. In this area too Christian Aid calls on the UK and Irish
It will take considerable political will on the part of the UK governments to lead the way in calling for a comprehensive
and Irish governments to address the range of ways in which reassessment of the ‘tax consensus’. For our part, we will
corporate tax evasion drains the resources of the developing continue to work with civil-society organisations in poor
world, but we believe both countries are ideally placed to countries in supporting effective taxation systems, and in
take a lead in rectifying a situation that has been described as demanding greater accountability from governments and
tantamount to a modern slave trade. greater transparency about commercial transactions. We will
The UK itself, recently identified as a tax haven by the support their efforts to resist the tax consensus.
International Monetary Fund (IMF), must cease to be an
obstacle to international financial transparency. It is directly or Action by the UK and Irish governments to
indirectly responsible for around half of the world’s tax havens. be taken unilaterally
As such, it must lead multilateral action to require automatic • Assess the problem: both governments to commission their
exchange of information between tax havens, countries from own studies into the scale of illicit capital flows in general
where the money has originated, and the countries where the and of those due to tax evasion in particular, with a special
companies and individuals who use tax havens are resident. emphasis on the role played by their own jurisdictions and
Ireland has in recent years stepped up its development institutions in facilitating capital flight and tax evasion from
contribution through aid. While this is welcome, it highlights an the developing world.
inconsistency in that country’s development policy because, • Make the hiding of profits impossible: to promote an
at the same time, Ireland has transformed itself into an international accounting standard that requires companies
Christian Aid/Robin Prime

international structure that facilitates tax dodging.To resolve this to report what they do on a country-by-country basis. Their
contradiction, Ireland should also now take a lead in addressing published accounts must show a breakdown of economic
the disastrous effects of this structure on poorer countries. activity, including profits made and taxes paid, in every
The City of London.The International The loss of cash that should be taxed is not the only jurisdiction where they operate, without exception.
Monetary Fund identifies it as a tax haven
0 Death and taxes Recommendations  Death and taxes Technical appendix

Technical appendix

• Repatriate illicit wealth: the UK and Ireland should lead efforts Action the UK and Irish governments should Every year some 10 million children under five die in the estimate of US$160bn of revenues lost each year to transfer
to ensure the repatriation of existing illicit wealth, the handling take to challenge the tax consensus developing world, seven million of them babies. They die mispricing and false invoicing.
of which is corrupt in itself. A system must be put in place – as The UK’s Department for International Development and because of disease, malnutrition and lack of safe drinking Table 1 shows the calculation of tax losses due to
called for by both the Commission for Africa and the UN Irish Aid should lead a reassessment of tax policy by donors, water, but ultimately because of poverty and the absence of an commercial tax evasion, using transfer mispricing and false
Convention Against Corruption – to ensure that all assets held including the World Bank and IMF, to which both governments effective state that can provide the type of healthcare and other invoicing. These two forms of evasion are estimated to account
by banks in Britain and Ireland are scrutinised for origin, and generously provide funds. services that the western world takes for granted. for about 7 per cent of global trade transactions each year. We
that information on those found to be owned by the residents • The reliance on VAT that has been forced on countries must The ability of governments in the developing world to combine this figure with World Bank figures about the volume
of developing countries is conveyed to the respective be revisited immediately. tackle high infant mortality rates and other poverty indicators of trade and corporate tax rates in order to calculate the implied
governments. UK and Irish financial institutions must be • The failure to consider revenue effects of trade liberalisation is extremely limited without the economic resources to loss of tax revenues. As Table 1 shows, the losses are highest
required to disclose the relevant information and cooperate in must also be addressed, with low-income countries able to implement beneficial change. in the poorest countries, and range from around 14 per cent of
the repatriation of these assets, or face prosecution. replace only 30 per cent of their lost revenues. The continuing The fact that so many economies remain on their knees is existing tax revenues in low-income countries, to 10 per cent in
• Require banks to disclose the ownership of all foreign entities negotiation of Economic Partnership Agreements must due in no small part to a lack of tax revenue. This is a state of upper-middle-income countries.
to which they supply services so that this information might explicitly take this into consideration. affairs for which tax evaders in the business world, who leech Table 2 shows the regression results used to obtain the tax-
be exchanged with the countries in question. • The uniform demand by donors for reduced business taxation money that could otherwise have been used to save lives, bear mortality associations, and the regression analysis is discussed
• Promote the use of ‘general anti-avoidance principles’ in tax (especially for foreign businesses) should stop. much of the blame. in detail below. Finally, Tables 3a and 3b show the calculations
to challenge the creative abuse of the tax system by lawyers, • The principle of self-determination of tax policy for poor Christian Aid estimates that since the United Nations of mortality impact, using the estimated tax loss and tax-
accountants and bankers, nationally and internationally. countries should be established and respected by donors, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were set in 2000, the mortality associations. Data on total mortality rates is added
• Require individuals to sign all import and export invoices reflecting the fundamental importance of this to the developing world has lost an estimated US$160bn a year in tax to see how our estimates imply they would fall if the taxes
to say they are correctly priced – with risk of personal strengthening of state-citizen relationships and effective revenues as a result of transfer mispricing within transnational evaded by companies through trade were both (i) available to
prosecution if they are not. political representation. corporations and false invoicing between business accomplices. governments and (ii) spent in similar proportion and with similar
• Press for reform of the International Accounting Standards That is significantly more than the amount of development aid association with outcomes to those observed during 1960-
Board so that it is taken out of private control and given given each year during the same period. 2006, and during 2000-06.
international agency status, and so that it includes members If current levels of tax evasion continue unchecked, by 2015 The implied potential reductions in infant and under-five
who do not represent the interests of the financial – the deadline for the delivery of the MDGs – the tax-revenue mortality range is as high as 6.5 per cent and 7.1 per cent
community. losses will total US$2.5 trillion. This figure is based on the respectively. From the high-end estimates we show that 250,000
value of the dollar in the year 2000, adjusted for inflation, and infant deaths a year are potentially avoidable by stopping abusive
Action by the UK and Irish governments to only covers money lost through transfer mispricing and false transfer pricing and false invoicing. Looking at all children under
be taken multilaterally invoicing. the age of five, a total of 350,000 deaths a year are potentially
• Both governments should support the Organisation for We cannot assume that if this tax had been paid, the avoidable on this basis. Scaled up for the full MDGs period (2000-
Economic Co-operation and Development in its efforts revenue would have been devoted entirely to saving children’s 15) and assuming no change, this implies that 5.6 million children
to regulate tax havens, demanding automatic exchange lives. However, we can estimate the approximate effect of under five – four million of them infants – will die unnecessarily
of relevant information. All havens must be required to changes in tax revenue on mortality, using data from developing as a result of tax evasion through trade alone.
participate and sanctions must be imposed on those that do countries. In other words, we can estimate the relationship Mortality is highly complex. A full analysis would necessarily
not actively cooperate. between taxes and death. contain a wide range of variables, including disease factors
• Action at a European Union level could also make an important If we look at the data for 1960-2006, we gain a conservative (such as HIV prevalence), economic performance, inequality,
contribution to the development of an international order estimate of the long-term relationship between the two factors. weather and harvest conditions, governance indicators,
of financial transparency. One possibility, alongside other A higher estimate of the association between death and taxes measures of government expenditure patterns (for example, on
measures to promote global transparency, would be to extend emerges from the 2000-2006 figures. public healthcare) and health-related outcomes (for example,
the EU Savings Tax Directive in three ways: so that it includes By applying the estimates to the period 2000-2007 we can level of medical skill of those present at births). Such an analysis
not only individuals but also companies and trusts; so that it show that the revenues lost to transfer mispricing and false is beyond the scope of this piece of work.
includes all forms of income, not only interest; and so that it invoicing could have prevented an estimated 350,000 children Instead, we estimate a simpler model that allows for the
applies to secrecy jurisdictions outside the EU as well. under five from dying each year, including up to 250,000 infants. effects of income levels (GDP per capita) and of the ratios to
• Technical assistance should be provided to developing This appendix briefly sets out the methodology used to GDP of aid flows and of tax revenues. In this way we aim to
countries, where requested, to help them address trade measure the association between tax revenues and under- capture the approximate relationships of national income and
mispricing problems. five and infant mortality rates, and shows how we reached an of the main components of development finance. We use data
 Death and taxes Technical appendix  Death and taxes Technical appendix

from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators (WDI) GDP ratio. We divide the countries into one group of low- and indicated here. Work using a fuller specification would also evasion by businesses through abusive trade practices.
throughout. lower-middle-income countries, and another of upper-middle- be valuable, to confirm the robustness of these results. This is an area of work that has been neglected in
Our goal is to gain some insight into likely effects, all else income countries, to address income differences, and obtain What this exercise has generated is a relatively robust long- econometric analysis, perhaps largely due to the difficulty
being equal, of increasing tax revenues. Rather than take a the results in the last four columns of Table 2. term association between tax/GDP and mortality rates, and of obtaining comprehensive data, and Christian Aid plans
simple correlation between these and mortality rates, we use By regressing such a simple model only, and for the short an estimate of the more recent association for the period considerable further work on these issues. Christian Aid would
a panel of data to carry out a simple regression to distinguish period, we are not addressing issues of causality but rather 2000-06. We do not attribute direct causality to the latter, but welcome discussion of this work, including suggestions for
more clearly between the associations in countries at different – by using fixed-effects regressions again – drawing out the use it to estimate the potential mortality changes that might be possible sources of tax data and for technical collaboration.
income levels. correlation within countries between tax/GDP and mortality associated with a particular increase in revenues.
We use fixed-effects regressions to emphasise associations rates. We expect to find a weaker relationship in upper-middle- In this way – using both the more robust causal regressions
within particular countries, rather than the differences between income countries, but a strong one in the group of poorer and the more recent short-term associations – we have been
countries. In this way we hope to get closer to seeing the developing countries. We also expect that the results may able to generate with some confidence a range of estimates
associations that might hold if revenues were increased in suggest a stronger effect of tax/GDP than in the previous of the potential mortality impact of the tax revenues lost to
particular individual countries – with their existing standards of regressions, potentially because of omitted variable bias but
governance, political preferences for expenditure and so on. also because it is to be hoped that development efforts in the
We expect to find that income level is strongly (negatively) more recent period have been more strongly concerned with
associated with mortality rates, both directly and by acting as a reducing mortality rates than over the last half-century as a Table 1: Estimation of tax losses
proxy for broader aspects of development. No clear association whole. There is however a risk that the smaller number of
Low-income Lower-middle- Upper-middle-
is expected for aid; while it may have an impact in reducing observations renders the regression weak and the association countries income income Developing
mortality it may also have been targeted at those countries insignificant. Line countries countries country total
with higher existing mortality rates, which will complicate the The results confirm the main hypotheses, and both the [1] Ratio of total trade volume to tax revenues 6.50 6.18 5.85
relationship. Finally, we expect a strong negative relationship strength of the association and the significance of the findings [2] Corporate tax rate Per cent 31.2 30.2 25.0
with tax/GDP, both as a direct indicator of the finance available with regard to the poorer countries is supported. We are [3] Tax/GDP ratio Per cent 13.6 16.1 17.6
for revenues and as an indicator of the general capacity of the then able to use this, in the lower half of Tables 3a and 3b, [4] Total tax revenues US$bn 158.0 531.5 638.6
state to meet basic requirements. to generate our high-end estimates for the mortality impact [5] Tax lost to false invoicing and Per cent of current
Regressions (1a) and (2a) in Table 2 confirm these of the missing tax revenues – assuming that such average abusive transfer pricing tax revenues 14.2 13.1 10.2
hypotheses for infant and under-five mortality respectively. associations are maintained. [6] US$bn each year 22.4 69.6 65.3 157.3bn
The results for GDP per capita and for the tax/GDP ratio are Finally, a caveat should be noted. The data is drawn from the
significant at the 2 per cent and 5 per cent levels respectively. standard source, the World Bank’s WDI. The scant coverage of Notes
Given that the relationships may work more fully over time even the most basic tax variables is a reflection of the neglect [1] Average by group for 2000-06, calculated from trade/GDP and tax/GDP ratios; WDI data.
– that is, current period revenues may not have an immediate that this issue has suffered for too long in development circles. [2] Higher marginal corporate tax rate, average by group for 2000-06; WDI data.
effect on mortality, but rather build over time as investments in, As a result, the number of observations is limited. [3] Average by group for 2000-06, calculated from tax/GDP ratios; WDI data.
for example, healthcare capacity work have a delayed impact The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a dataset, [4] Calculated as average tax/GDP by group for 2000-06, times group GDP in constant year 2000 US dollars, adjusted for inflation to
– we re-estimate the model with five-year lags of each variable. Government Financial Statistics, which contains much more year 2008 dollars.
Regressions (1b) and (2b) show the results for infant and under- detailed tax data and greater coverage. Sadly however, they do [5] Using Ray Baker’s ‘conservative estimate’ that 7 per cent of trade volumes is illicit capital movement, by false invoicing between
five mortality respectively, which are reassuringly similar in not make this freely available for either country researchers or unrelated parties and by abusive transfer pricing within multinational groups, which lies behind the total dirty-money estimate of
each case. The importance of the tax/GDP ratio is stronger those interested in this type of broad panel analysis. The value of US$1.6 trillion as quoted by the World Bank. Calculated as 7 per cent of line [1], multiplied by line [2], which gives the tax due on
relative to that of GDP per capita in this specification compared making this freely available – in terms of potential transparency the illicit capital moved via trade, as a percentage of current tax revenues.
to the previous one. and accountability impacts – might well be thought to outweigh [6] Line [5] as a share of line [4].
To obtain the low-end estimates for mortality impact (see any financial return to the Fund from sales.
Tables 3a and 3b), we use the coefficient on the tax/GDP ratio Christian Aid is working with partners including the Tax
in regressions (1b) and (2b) to calculate the implied marginal Justice Network to create a database that will provide much
sensitivity of mortality rates. fuller coverage. We are also in correspondence with the IMF on
To obtain high-end estimates we examine data for only the question of their dataset’s availability.
the MDGs period (2000-06), and, rather than estimate the full This piece of work should eventually be replicated, once
model, we test only the association between mortality and tax/ a full tax database is available, to confirm the associations
 Death and taxes Technical appendix  Death and taxes Technical appendix

Table 2: Regression results Table 3a: Total infant mortality impact

Long-term relationships, 1960-2006 Short-term relationships, 2000-06 Lower-middle- Upper-middle-
Infant mortality Under-five mortality Infant mortality Under-five mortality Low-income income income Developing
(1a) (1b) (2a) (2b) (3a) (3b) (4a) (4b) Line countries countries countries country total
Independent variables
(in natural logs) LIC/LMIC UMIC LIC/LMIC UMIC [7] Infant mortality rate (Per 1,000 live births) 78.9 34.4 27.4
GDP per capita (year 2000 US$) -19.30 -29.25 [8] Total infant mortality, 2000-07 Millions 43.1 10.3 3.0 56.3
(-7.32)*** (-4.52)*** Low-end estimate
Aid/GDP (%) 0.93 1.83 [9a] Infant mortality impact of
(1.93)* (1.32) additional tax revenues (Per 1,000 live births) -1.0 -0.9 -0.7
Tax/GDP (%) -5.58 -10.21 -18.18 -1.20 -25.71 -2.03 [10a] Per cent -1.3 -2.7 -2.7
(-2.04)** (-1.85)* (-2.59)*** (-0.85) (-2.21)** (-0.96) [11a] Potential fall in infant mortality:
GDP per capita (year 2000 US$), total, 2000-07 Millions 0.5 0.3 0.1 0.9
five-year lag -16.42 -20.73 [12a] Projected fall in infant mortality:
(-4.35) ***
(-2.7)*** total, 2000-15 Millions 1.1 0.6 0.2 1.8
Aid/GDP (%), five-year lag 0.76 1.70 High-end estimate
(1.39) (1.17) [9b] Infant mortality impact of
Tax/GDP (%), five-year lag -7.51 -14.78 additional tax revenues (Per 1,000 live births) -2.4 -2.2 -0.1
(-2.36) **
(-2.59)*** [10b] Per cent -3.1 -6.5 -0.4
Constant 195.96 179.45 299.03 248.33 95.95 17.97 135.36 26.10 [11b] Potential fall in infant mortality:
(10.46)*** (6.98)*** (6.85)*** (4.81)*** (5.22)*** (4.48)*** (4.42)*** (4.29)*** total, 2000-07 Millions 1.3 0.7 0.0 2.0
R-sq: within 0.35 0.28 0.31 0.27 0.26 0.02 0.23 0.05 [12b] Projected fall in infant mortality:
R-sq: between 0.64 0.55 0.62 0.53 0.10 0.00 0.07 0.00 total, 2000-15 Millions 2.6 1.3 0.0 4.0
R-sq: overall 0.66 0.61 0.58 0.54 0.11 0.00 0.07 0.00
Observations 255 182 203 157 68 62 65 40 Notes
Countries 87 72 84 72 48 23 48 22 [7] Average by group for 2000-06, calculated from WDI data.
[8] Line [7] scaled up for eight-year period 2000-07.
Notes [9a] Historic impact of tax revenues on infant mortality. Implied sensitivity of mortality rate from panel regression analysis of data
All regressions are fixed effects to capture the relationship between tax and mortality within countries. All data is from WDI. for all developing countries, 1960-2006.
Significance of results is indicated by asterisks: *** significant at 2 per cent level, ** at 5 per cent level, * at 10 per cent level. [10a] Line [9a] as a percentage of line [7].
[11a] Line [10a] scaled up for eight-year period 2000-07.
[12a] Two times line [11a], ie total for 2000-15 assuming annual rate is constant to 2015.
[9b] Recent association of tax/GDP ratio with infant mortality. Implied sensitivity of mortality rate from panel regression analysis of
data for developing countries by group, 2000-06.
[10b] Line [9b] as a percentage of line [7].
[11b] Line [10b] scaled up for eight-year period 2000-07.
[12b] Two times line [11b], ie total for 2000-15 assuming annual rate is constant to 2015.
 Death and taxes Technical appendix  Death and taxes Endnotes

Endnotes

Stripping the riches 10 Reuters, ‘Gabon lifts the stories/200802120010.html 33 Simon J Pak, ‘Estimates of
Table 3b: Total under-five mortality impact 1 Commodity Boom Continues suspension of 22 NGOs after a
22 ‘Mittal Steel’s US$900 million
Capital Movements from African
to Roll, BBC online, 16 January week’, 16 January 2008. Countries to the US through
Lower-middle- Upper-middle- deal in Liberia is inequitable, says
2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ Trade Mispricing’, paper given at
11 Reuters, ‘Gabon’s greens fret new Global Witness report’, www.
Low-income income income Developing business/7171308.stm tax research workshop at Essex
over China iron-ore project’, globalwitness.org/media_library_
Line countries countries countries country total 2 ‘Demand for gold up by 26 per 11 October 2007. detail.php/459/en/mittal_steels_
University, England, July 2006.
[13] Under-five mortality rate (Per 1,000) 120.5 44.5 32.1 cent as China becomes second- us900_million_deal_in_liberia_
12 Mining Royalties: A Global
[14] Total under-five mortality, biggest market’, The Times, 22 is_ine, and, ‘Mittal steel did the Tanzania: the sharp end of
Study of Their Impact on Investors,
2000-07 Millions 65.7 13.3 3.5 82.5 February 2008, http://business. right thing – will Firestone?’ www. the panga
Government and Civil Society,
timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/ globalwitness.org/media_library_ 1 Sunday Citizen, 29 April 2007.
Low-end estimate World Bank, 2006.
industry_sectors/natural_ detail.php/539/en/mittal_steel_did_
2 Mark Curtis, Tundu Lissu,
[15a] Under-five mortality impact of resources/article3411715.ece 13 Paul Collier, Michael Spence, the_right_thing_will_firestone
A Golden Opportunity?, Christian
additional tax revenues (Per 1,000) -2.0 -1.8 -1.4 ‘Help poor states to seize the fruits
3 1998 price taken from ‘Free 23 Raymond Baker, Capitalism’s Council of Tanzania, National
of the boom’, FT, 9 April 2008.
[16a] Per cent -1.6 -4.1 -4.5 market prices and price indices of Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How Council of Muslims in Tanzania and
selected primary commodities’, 14 Mark Curtis, Tundu Lissu, to Renew the Free-Market System, Tanzanian Episcopal Conference,
[17a] Potential fall in under-five
United Nations Conference on A Golden Opportunity?, Christian John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2005. March 2008, p 26.
mortality: total, 2000-07 Millions 1.1 0.5 0.2 1.8 Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Council of Tanzania, National
24 ‘Quiet flows the dosh’, The 3 Ibid, p 8.
[18a] Projected fall in under-five Handbook of Statistics 2007, www. Council of Muslims in Tanzania and
Economist, 7 December 2000.
mortality: total, 2000-15 Millions 2.1 1.1 0.3 3.5 unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp? Tanzanian Episcopal Conference, 4 Ibid, p 7.
intItemID=1890&lang= ; 2008 price March 2008. 25 Closing the Floodgates.
High-end estimate 5 Ibid, p 24.
taken from Metal Bulletin, price Collecting Tax to Pay for
15 ‘Ghana: no incentive needed for
[15b] Under-five mortality impact database available to subscribers, Development, Tax Justice Network, 6 Ibid, p 24.
investing in the mining sector – tax
of additional tax revenues (Per 1,000) -3.4 -3.2 -0.2 www.metalbulletin.com 2007, www.innovativefinance-oslo.
expert’, Public Agenda, Accra, 7 Ibid, p 26.
no/pop.cfm?FuseAction=Doc&pAc
[16b] Per cent -2.8 -7.1 -0.6 4 1998 price taken from Johnson 25 February 2008, http://allafrica.
tion=View&pDocumentId=11607 8 AngloGold Ashanti,
[17b] Potential fall in under-five Matthey’s Platinum Today website, com/stories/200802251515.html
Annual Report 2006, p 80,
www.platinummatthey.com/prices/ 26 Ibid.
mortality: total, 2000-07 Millions 1.9 0.9 0.0 2.8 16 Thomas Baunsgaard, www.anglogoldashanti.com
current_historical.html; 2008 price
A Primer on Mineral Taxation, IMF 27 Macartan Humphreys, Jeffrey
[18b] Projected fall in under-five taken from Metal Bulletin, ibid. 9 Sunday Citizen, 7 October 2007.
Working Paper WP/01/139, p 26. D. Sachs, Joseph E Stiglitz,
mortality: total, 2000-15 Millions 3.7 1.9 0.0 5.6 5 1998 price taken from ‘Free Escaping the Resource Curse, 10 Ibid, 13 May 2007.
17 Alastair Fraser, John Lungu.
market prices and price indices of George Soros, foreword, Columbia
For Whom the Windfalls? Winners 11 Ibid, 1 April 2007.
Notes selected primary commodities’,
and Losers in the Privatisation
University Press, 2007.
[13] Average by group for 2000-06, calculated from WDI data. Handbook of Statistics 2007,
of Zambia’s Copper Mines, Civil 28 Tarallo was among 37 people
UNCTAD, www.unctad.org/ The secret shore
[14] Line [13] scaled up for eight-year period 2000-07. Society Trade Network of Zambia, accused of embezzling about
Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=18 1 Written testimony of Jeffrey
Catholic Commission for Justice, $350m from the formerly state-
[15a] Historic impact of tax revenues on under-five mortality. Implied sensitivity of mortality rate from panel regression analysis of 90&lang=1; 2008 price taken from Owens, Director, Organisation
Development and Peace, January owned oil giant Elf in the late 1980s
data for all developing countries, 1960-2006. the London Metal Exchange, www. for Economic Co-operation and
2007. and early 1990s. Prosecutors said
lme.co.uk/copper_graphs.asp Development Centre for Tax Policy
[16a] Line [15a] as a percentage of line [13]. 18 ‘Zambia’s new bid to cash in on
bribes paid out by Elf to officials
and Administration, Senate Finance
6 For iron ore, we have measured around the world were in the
[17a] Line [16a] scaled up for eight-year period 2000-07. copper’, The Observer, 28 October Committee on Offshore Tax
the change in price between March region of US$130m a year. Tarallo,
[18a] Two times line [17a], ie total for 2000-15 assuming annual rate is constant to 2015. 2007, www.guardian.co.uk/ Evasion, 3 May 2007,
1998 and June 2007 because of known as Monsieur Afrique,
business/2007/oct/28/12/print www.senate.gov/~finance/
[15b] Recent association of tax/GDP ratio with under-five mortality. Implied sensitivity of mortality rate from panel regression the difficulty of finding current price admitted to ‘mistakes’ – but argued
hearings/testimony/2007test/
analysis of data for developing countries by group, 2000-06. data. Both figures are taken from 19 Alastair Fraser, John Lungu. he was led astray by a culture of
050307testjo.pdf
UNCTAD, ibid. For Whom the Windfalls? Winners bribery at Elf.
[16b] Line [15b] as a percentage of line [13]. and Losers in the Privatisation 2 Closing the Floodgates, Tax
7 1998 price is taken from 29 Raymond W Baker, The Ugliest
[17b] Line [16b] scaled up for eight-year period 2000-07. of Zambia’s Copper Mines, Civil Justice Network, 2007, www.
UNCTAD, ibid; 2008 price Chapter in Global Economic Affairs
[18b] Two times line [17b], ie total for 2000-15 assuming annual rate is constant to 2015. Society Trade Network of Zambia, globalpolicy.org/nations/launder/
taken from the New York Metal Since Slavery, speech to Global
Catholic Commission for Justice, haven/2007/2007taxjustice.pdf
Exchange, www.nymex.com Financial Integrity Program,
Development and Peace, January
28 June 2007. 3 Richard Murphy, Fiscal Paradise
8 Macartan Humphreys, Jeffrey 2007.
or Tax on Development. What is
D Sachs, Joseph E Stiglitz, 30 Ibid.
20 ‘Africans rap EU trading deals’, the Role of the Tax Haven?, Tax
Escaping the Resource Curse,
20 January 2008, www.guardian. 31 Ibid. Justice Network, 2005, www.
George Soros, foreword, Columbia
co.uk/business/2008/jan/20/ richard.murphy.dial.pipex.com/
University Press, 2007. 32 Raymond W Baker, Capitalism’s
worldbank Fiscalparadise.pdf
Achilles Heel; Dirty Money and How
9 Cited in ‘The confession of Nazir
21 ‘Mines reject tax regime’, to Renew the Free-Market System, 4 Private Eye. No 1206, 21 March-
Karamagi’, Sunday Citizen, 30
Times of Zambia, 12 February John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2005. 3 April 2008.
September 2007.
2008, http://allafrica.com/
5 Sunday Tribune, October 14 2007.
58 Death and taxes Endnotes 59 Death and taxes Endnotes

6 P Lane, F Ruane, Globalisation 3 New York Law Journal, 26 March 15 Wall Street Journal, 7 November, D71901?contentType=Article&cont 5 Embassy of India website Why paying tax is good Peru and Bolivia: a tale of 13 Mining and Development in
and the Irish Economy, Institute for 2008, www.law.com/jsp/article. 2005, http://online.wsj.com/article/ entId=1669223 http://indianembassy.org/newsite// for you two tax systems Peru, published by a delegation
International Integration Studies, jsp?id=1206441811788 SB113132761685289706.html Doing_business_In_India/Special_ 1 Mick Moore, ‘How does taxation to Peru led by Professor Anthony
25 Ibid. 1 Tim Egan, ‘War on Peruvian drugs
Dublin, 2006. Economic_Zones.asp affect the quality of governance?’, Bebbington of the University of
4 ‘KPMG pays $456m for tax 16 Interview, March 2008. takes a victim: US asparagus’, The
26 Ibid. Tax Notes International, 2 July 2007. Manchester, p 35.
7 www.cimoney.com.ky/section/ misdeeds’, BBC online, 29 August 6 Department for International New York Times, 24 April 2004,
17 ‘Is Tax on Your Board’s Agenda’,
regulatoryframework/sub/default. 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ 27 Ibid. Development http://www.dfid.gov. 2 Ibid. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/ 14 ‘Revolt in the Andes’, The
Finance magazine, Ireland,
aspx?section=pdfid=666 business/4195840.stm uk/countries/asia/india.asp fullpage.html?res=9C02E6DF123A Economist, 20 September 2007.
December 2007. 28 Monty Python’s Vocational 3 Ibid.
F936A15757C0A9629C8B63
8 William Brittain Catlin, Offshore 5 Securities and Exchange Guidance Counselor http://urielw. 7 SEZs and Land Acquisition 15 Barrick Annual Report 2007,
18 Third and Final Report of 4 Michael L Ross, associate
– The Dark Side of the Global Commission News Digest, 26 April com/refs/montyvgc.htm Factsheet, Citizen’s Research 2 Agrokasa corporate website, p 126.
Dick Thornburgh, Bankruptcy professor, University of California,
Economy, Farrar, Straus and 2005, www.sec.gov/news/digest/ Collective. www.agrokasa.com.pe
Court Examiner, United States 29 Study into the Role of Tax Los Angeles, Political Science 16 Energy Information
Giroux, 2005. dig042605.txt
Bankruptcy Court, Southern Intermediaries, Organisation 8 Ministry of Commerce and Department, Does Taxation Lead 3 Terri Judd, ‘English asparagus Administration, Department of the
9 Ibid. 6 Financial Services Authority District of New York, 26 January for Economic Co-operation and Industry website, www.sezindia. to Representation?, 3 September tipped for great season’, The Environment, US government,
press release, 28 January 2004, 2004, www.som.yale.edu/ Development, 2008, www.oecd. nic.in/HTMLS/groundrealities.pdf 2002. Independent, 3 May 2006, www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/
10 Comptroller and Auditor
www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/final/dtwm_ faculty/Sunder/FinancialFraud/ org/document/23/0,3343,en_2649_ www.independent.co.uk/news/ Bolivia/NaturalGas.html
General, Managing Risk in the 9 Ministry of Commerce and 5 Alex Cobham, Taxation Policy
27jan04.pdf WorldCom3rd%20Report.pdf 201185_40252183_1_1_1_1,00.html uk/this-britain/english-asparagus-
Overseas Territories, HC 4 Session Industry, http://commerce.nic.in/ and Development, Oxford Council 17 Christian Aid interview with
tipped-for-great-season-476554.html
2007-2008, 16 November 2007, 7 USAID press release, 22 19 Ibid. 30 Staff of the Joint Committee on PressRelease/pressrelease_detail. on Good Governance Economy Carlos Arze, a taxation expert at the
p 23, www.nao.org.uk/publications/ July 2005, www.usaid.gov/oig/ Taxation, Report of Investigation asp?id=2129 Section, project paper, 2005. 4 ‘Decent work: agro export in Research Centre for Agrarian and
20 Report by the Permanent
nao_reports/07-08/07084.pdf press/0721-05-063.pdf of Enron Corporation and Related Peru’, YouTube clip produced by Labour Development think-tank in
Subcommittee on Investigations 10 Central Intelligence Agency, 6 Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble
Entities Regarding Federal Tax and Plades – Labour Programme of La Paz, Bolivia.
11 Appendix A, States of Jersey 8 Department of Justice press of the Committee of Homeland The World Factbook, www.cia. for Africa, Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
Compensation Issues, and Policy Development, a Peruvian NGO.
Police Annual Performance Report release, 16 August 2007, www. Security and Governmental gov/library/publications/the-world- 1990, p 129 and p 130. 18 Ibid.
Recommendations, February 2003,
2007, www.jersey.police.uk/pdf- usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2007/August/07_ Affairs, US Senate, The Role of factbook/print/in.html 5 Christian Aid interview with
www.house.gov/jct/s-3-03-vol1.pdf 7 Christopher Heady, ‘Taxation 19 Christian Aid interview with
files/StatesofJersey%20Police% civ_620.html Professional Firms in the US Peruvian economist Fritz du Bois of
11 Department for International policy in low-income countries’, in Roberto Ugarte, Bolivian finance
202007%20Annual%20ReportFI Tax Shelter Industry, 8 February 31 Report by the Permanent the Instituto Peruano de Economia.
9 New York Times, 3 July 2003, Development, www.ukinindia. Tony Addison and Alan Roe (eds.), minister in charge of taxation.
NAL.pdf 2005, http://levin.senate.gov/ Subcommittee on Investigations
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/ com/htdocs/dfid.asp Fiscal Policy for Development, 6 Christian Aid interview with Norly
newsroom/supporting/2005/ of the Committee of Homeland 20 Website of the Latin America
12 Lucy Komisar, Citigroup, a fullpage.html?res=9500E1D6103A UNU-WIDER/Palgrave, 2004; Alex Munoz, nutritionist with Casas de
psitaxshelterreport.021005.pdf Security and Governmental 12 Department for International Bureau, a London-based research
Culture and History of Tax Evasion, F930A35754C0A9659C8B63&scp Cobham, ‘The tax consensus has la Salud (Health Houses).
Affairs, US Senate, The Role Development, www.dfid.gov.uk/ and publishing organisation, www.
Davos, 2006, www.taxjustice. =1&sq=Ernst%26Young+To+Pay+ 21 New York Times, 13 January failed’, OCGG Economy Section
of Professional Firms in the US countries/asia/india.asp 7 US Department of State Bureau latinamericabureau.org/?lid=1992
net/cms/upload/pdf/Citigroup_- U.S.%2415+Million+In+Tax+Case 2004, http://query.nytimes.com/ Recommendation ER008, Oxford
Tax Shelter Industry, 8 February of Western Hemispheric Affairs,
_a_culture_and_history_of_tax_ &st=nyt gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE2DB1 13 Global Monitoring Report, 2008, Council on Good Governance, 2007. 21 Perfil Epidemeologico del
2005, http://levin.senate.gov/ background note on Peru, March
evasion-_summary.pdf Internal Revenue Service 230F930A25752C0A9629C8B63 http://siteresources.worldbank. Escolar, Municipio de La Paz 2005-
newsroom/supporting/2005/ 8 Evert-Jan Quak, quoting 2008, www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/
statement, 2 July, 2003 org/INTGLOMONREP2008/ 2006, Epidemiological profile for
13 Lucy Komisar, ‘Bringing 22 Minority Staff of Permanent psitaxshelterreport.021005.pdf UNAFISCO, Brazil, ‘Money on the bgn/35762.htm
www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/ Resources/4737994-120734296 schools in the La Paz municipality
business back ashore: Buenos Subcommittee on Investigations of move’, The Broker, 4 October 2007.
0,,id=111188,00.html 32 Ibid. 2709/8944_Web_PDF.pdf 8 London Bullion Market 2005-06.
Aires issues world’s first ban the Committee of Governmental
9 T Baumsgaard, M Keen, Association, www.lbma.org.uk;
on offshore shell companies’, 10 New York Times, 17 April 2004, Affairs, US Senate, US Tax 33 Ibid. 14 Kunhikannan and Aravindan 22 El Juancito Pinto hace subir la
Tax Revenue and (or?) Trade London Metal Exchange,
CorpWatch, 4 April 2005, http:// www.nytimes.com/2004/04/17/ Shelter Industry: The Role of (1999) quoted in S Nandraj et al, escolaridad (‘Juancito Pinto has
Liberalization, International www.lme.co.uk
thekomisarscoop.com/2005/04/04/ business/17ERNS.html?ex=13975 Accountants, Lawyers and Financial Private Health Sector in India: increased scholarship’),
India: tax-break winners and Monetary Fund Working Paper
bringing-business-back-ashore- 34400&en=1d903f5409987589&ei Professionals. Four KPMG Case Review and Annotated Biography, 9 Vigilancia de las Industrias La Razon, (Bolivian newspaper),
losers 05/112, 2005,
buenos-aires-issues-worlds-first- =5007&partner=USERLAND Studies: Flip, Opis, Blips and SC2, 2001. Extratrativas (Monitoring the 21 November 2007, www.la-razon.
1 ‘Orissa poorest state: survey’, www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/
ban-on-offshore-shell-companies/ November 2003, http://levin. Extractive Industries), Grupo com.versiones/20071121_006097/
11 New York Times, 27 March 2007, The Hindu, 23 March 2007, 15 ‘Reliance Industries profits wp/2005/wp05112.pdf
senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/ Propuesta Ciudadana (Citizen’s nota_250_509424.htm
14 Interview with Ronen Palan, www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/ www.hindu.com/2007/03/23/ soar’, BBC online, 27 April 2006,
2003/111803TaxShelterReport.pdf 10 EU-15 refers to the 15 countries Advocacy Group),
author of The Offshore World: business/27audits.html stories/2007032318681600.htm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
in the European Union before the March 2008, p 11 and p 16.
Sovereign Markets, Virtual Places, 23 ‘KPMG “pushed illegal tax business/4952104.stm Recommendations
12 ‘Debenhams loses VAT “fee” 2 ‘Police unearth West Bengal expansion on 1 May 2004, when
and Nomad Millionaires, March dodge”,’ Observer, January 10 Ibid, p 21. 1. The Costs of Attaining the
case’, The Guardian, 19 July bodies’, BBC online, 5 December 16 ‘5,000-hectare cap on SEZs to eight central and eastern European
2008. 2005, www.guardian.co.uk/ Millennium Development Goals,
2005, www.guardian.co.uk/ 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ be relaxed’, The Times of India, countries joined, as well as Cyprus 11 Christian Aid interview with
business/2005/jan/30/theobserver. World Bank, www.worldbank.org/
business/2005/jul/19/money1 world/south_asia/7129336.stm 4 December 2007, http:// and Malta. financial communications manager
observerbusiness9 html/extdr/mdgassessment.pdf
The haven experts timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ at investor relations in Newmont
13 Autorita’ Garante Della 3 M Cernea, ‘Induced and conflict- 11 Closing the Floodgates, Tax
1 Internal Revenue Service 24 Prem Sikka, ‘Enterprise, articleshow/2593303.cms Mining, which operates Yanacocha
Concorrenza e del Marco press induced IDPs: bridging the research Justice Network, 2007.
statement, 29 August 2005, culture and accountancy firms; gold mine in Peru.
release, 21 February 2000, divide’, Forced Migration Review, 17 ‘Mauritius stance to hurt India’s
www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/ new masters of the universe’,
www.agcm.it/agcm_eng/ December 2006. tax revenues’, Rediff News, 12 Roland Jackson, ‘Gold price
0,,id=146999,00.html Accounting, Auditing and
COSTAMPA/E_PRESS.NSF/0/991a 13 March 2008, www.rediff.com/ strikes $1,000 per ounce for first
Accountability Journal, vol 21, 4 Tata website, www.tata.com/0_
2 Department of Justice press 5848bc88040dc125688f0056851d money/2008/mar/13mauri.htm time’, Agence France-Presse,
no 2, 2008, p 268-295, www. about_us/group_profile.htm
release, 17 October 2005, ?OpenDocument 13 March 2008.
emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ 18 Ibid.
www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/
14 Interview, March 2008. viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=C
October/05_tax_547.html 19 Ibid.
D97B03F94E6B0C92BDA1B4D3D
60 Death and taxes

Acknowledgements

This report was written by Andrew Hogg, India: tax-break winners and losers was written
Judith Melby, Anjali Kwatra, Sarah Wilson, by Anjali Kwatra, with thanks, in India, to Aseem
Alex Cobham, Rachel Baird, David McNair and Shrivastava, Manshi Asher; Professor Jayati
Matthew Sowemimo. Edited by John Davison. Ghosh and Professor Arun Kumar (Jawaharlal
Sub-edited by Sophy Kershaw, Louise Parfitt Nehru University, New Delhi); Satvir Singh Gulia,
and Julia Bell. Production by Marta Rodriguez. Vivekananda Dash; Amitabh Behar (National
Designed by Howdy. Centre for Advocacy Studies); Anand Kumar
(Christian Aid India office); Ekta Parishad; and
With special thanks to John Christensen Centre for Education and Communication.
(director, International Secretariat, Tax Justice
Network) and Richard Murphy (Tax Research LLP). Why paying tax is good for you was written by
Alex Cobham and Andrew Hogg.
Introduction was written by John Davison.
Peru and Bolivia: a tale of two tax systems
Stripping the riches was written by Andrew was written by Sarah Wilson and Rachel Baird,
Hogg, with thanks to Sony Kapoor and Willy Olsen. with thanks in Peru to Dina Guerra and Edith
Montero (Christian Aid); Lucien Chauvin,
Tanzania: the sharp end of the panga was Humberto Campodonico, Dan Collyns; Epifanio
written by Judith Melby. With thanks, in Tanzania, Baca and Nilton Quinones (Grupo Propuesta
to Fredrik Glad-Gjernes and the office of Ciudadana). Thanks, in Bolivia, to Emma Donlan
Norwegian Church Aid; Tundu Lissu (Lawyers’ and Hannah Morley (Christian Aid); Carlos Arze
Environmental Action Team); and Mark Curtis. and Javier Gomez (CEDLA – Centre for Labour
and Agricultural Development); Elyzabeth Peredo,
Malawi: the way forward? was written by Felix Vargas and Alexandra Flores (Fundacion
Judith Melby, with thanks, in Malawi, to Rafiq Solon); and Andres Shipani.
Hajat (Institute for Policy Interaction) and Undule
Mwakasungula (Centre for Human Rights and Recommendations was written by Alex Cobham,
Rehabilitation). David McNair, Andrew Hogg and Matthew
Sowemimo.
The secret shore was written by Andrew Hogg,
with thanks to David McNair (Christian Aid Dublin Technical appendix was written by Alex Cobham,
office); Ronen Palan (professor of international with thanks to Liam Wren-Lewis (University of
political economy, Department of Political Oxford).
Science and International Studies, University
of Birmingham); and Sol Picciotto (emeritus Copyright Christian Aid, May 2008
professor, Lancaster University Law School).
For more information, contact Christian Aid’s
The haven experts was written by Andrew media office on 020 7523 2421 or 07850 242950
Hogg, with thanks to Prem Sikka (professor of or [email protected]
accounting, University of Essex).
‘For the first time in the 200-year run of the free-market
system, we have built and expanded an entire integrated
global financial structure the basic purpose of which is
to shift money from poor to rich. [It is] the ugliest chapter
in global economic affairs since slavery...’
Raymond W Baker, a senior fellow at the US Center for International Policy,
and guest scholar at the Brookings Institution

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