The global community, including Nigeria, loses $492 billion annually in tax to multinational corporations and wealthy individuals using tax havens to underpay tax, a new report by the Tax Justice Network has revealed.
The report featured no fewer than 20 countries (jurisdictions) under the Corporate Tax Haven Index (CTHI), a ranking of countries most complicit in helping multinational corporations underpay corporate income tax.
British Virgin Islands sits on top of the list with a score of 3,061, followed by Cayman Islands (2,891), Bermuda (2,478), Switzerland (2,279), Singapore (2,059), Hong Hong (1,948), Netherlands (1,945), British Crown Dependency, Jersey (1,756), Ireland (1 622), and Luxembourg (1,480).
The Bahamas is ranked 11th with a score of 1,313, followed by the Isle of Man (1,144), Guernsey (1 122), Cyprus (1,046), while Mauritius (the only African country listed among the tax havens) is ranked 1,005.
China is ranked 974; United Arab Emirates (UAE), 964; United Kingdom (UK) is 894, France 883 and Malta 747.
The report further explained that the UK and its second empire is responsible for over a quarter of all countries’ tax losses (26 per cent), costing countries $129 billion a year.
Specifically, Nigeria incurs an annual loss of $383.9 million, arising from profit and tax losses to global corporate tax abuse, the report noted.
The just-released 2024 State of Tax Justice report, disclosed that of the $492 billion in global annual tax losses, $347.6 billion arise from cross-border corporate tax abuse by multinational corporations.
The total global loss comprises the combined costs of cross-border tax abuse by multinational companies and by individuals with undeclared assets offshore.
Nearly half the losses (43 percent) are enabled by eight countries that are opposed to the United Nations (UN) tax convention to check tax loopholes.
They include Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Ironically, these eight which, by their action, are the biggest enablers of global tax abuse are also some of the biggest losers.
The eight, constituting a small group of higher-income countries, account for just about 8 per cent of the global population and are known to have blocked the whole world from agreeing tax rules at the United Nations which were designed to curb global tax abuse.
According to the report, the largest component of global tax losses continues to be cross-border corporate tax abuse, adding that multinational companies are responsible for around a third of global economic output, half of world exports and nearly a quarter of global employment.
It explained that their tax abuse is a first-order global economic issue, depriving governments of tax revenues, increasing inequalities between and within countries, and undermining smaller and domestic businesses that generate the majority of employment.
Global tax abuse, the report argued, harms everybody, stressing that higher-income countries lose bigger sums, but lower-income countries’ losses make up a bigger share of their budgets.
“Lower income countries lose five times as much as a share of their public health budgets, compared to higher income countries,” it added.
The Tax Justice Network’s annual State of Tax Justice report measures how much tax every country loses to global tax abuse a year.
It stated that the most recent data (October 2024) indicated that multinational corporations are shifting $1.42 trillion worth of profit into tax havens a year, causing governments around the world to lose $348 billion annually in direct tax revenue.
The report disclosed that the eight countries which recently voted against UN tax convention terms lost $177 billion; $189 billion lost by 44 abstainers, and $123 billion lost by 110 countries voting for.
According to the report, multinational corporations are shifting more profit into tax havens and underpaying more on tax, evidencing failure of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD’s) tax reform attempts.
Offshore tax evasion by wealthy individuals dropped, but by far less than claimed, the report explained, adding that the majority of wealth offshore is still hidden from tax authorities.
With countries set to vote shortly at the UN on whether to finally enter formal negotiations on the meat of a UN tax convention, the Tax Justice Network urged all countries to vote in favour of the negotiations.
“Governments now have a chance to choose differently at the UN, to choose to use tax to protect people, economies and planet,” the report said.
The negotiation of a UN tax convention is widely seen as the biggest shakeup in history to the global tax system, and previously reported as the world’s best chance to avert losing nearly $5 trillion to tax havens over the next decade in last year’s edition of the State of Tax Justice.
The report disclosed that of the $492 billion lost to global tax abuse a year, two-thirds ($347.6 billion) is lost to multinational corporations shifting profit offshore to underpay tax.
The remaining third ($144.8 billion) is lost to wealthy individuals hiding their wealth offshore.
Ndubuisi Francis
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