Cafod has added its voice to criticism of revelations about the world elite’s hidden wealth, disclosed in the “Paradise Papers” detailing offshore finance and secret tax havens.
The disclosures, which have drawn in the British royal family as well as US President Donald Trump along with a string of celebrities, come some 18 months after the similarly revelatory “Panama Papers”. Cafod’s director of advocacy, Neil Thorns, said: “These revelations, whether legal or not, reveal that individuals and businesses are not acting in the interests of the common good. Tax revenues are vital for poor countries and the Government must act to ensure that everyone pays their fair share.”
The head of economic development at Christian Aid, Toby Quantrill, said: “These revelations are yet further evidence of the extent and nature of the global offshore system: a rotten system that enables a few of the richest amongst us to dodge their financial responsibilities but is unavailable to the vast majority of us; a corrupt system that has been deliberately created by the most powerful, at the expense of the powerless, from all countries in the world; a system which undermines democracy and markets alike and which reinforces the cycle of inequality, perpetuating the entrenchment of power at the top.”
A Christian Aid statement added: “Government ministers like [Prime Minister] Theresa May and [Foreign Secretary] Boris Johnson have the power to make it much harder to dodge taxes by increasing transparency … The UK is responsible for its crown dependencies and overseas territories, and must act to end their secrecy.”