Ed Miliband will demand that Bermuda and other UK tax havens be put on an international blacklist within six months of a Labour government taking office unless they end their system of secrecy and produce a public register of offshore company owners.
He said: “The time has finally come to put an end to a society in which one group of people can play by different rules to the rest. There is nothing pro-business about defending tax avoidance. Millions of British people and businesses pay their taxes and they are damaged by this behaviour.”
Ed Miliband also highlighted that David Cameron, during his chairmanship of the G8 in 2013, had promised to make a crackdown on tax evasion one of his central goals. At that time he had demanded reforms from Jersey, Guernsey and other crown dependencies, including a commitment from each to make the true owners of companies located in their jurisdictions public.
Miliband said: “Cameron made this big promise 18 months ago that he was going to force UK tax havens in crown dependencies to open up and he has totally failed to meet that promise.
He said: “For this to be portrayed as anti-business is ridiculous. What I am saying is what the archbishop of Canterbury has been saying, the International Monetary Fund has been saying, and the OECD has been saying – a more equal society is a more efficient society. I believe in wealth creation and company profits, and for the government to play its part, and we have been working closely with business to shape that agenda.”
And on the attacks from the offshore Boots CEO, Miliband said in a Guardian interview, “Look, I find it unacceptable if someone lives in Monaco to avoid paying taxes and chooses to lecture the British people about they should vote in a general election, and say it is catastrophic if Labour is elected. I tell you what is catastrophic is tax avoidance on the grand scale and governments that do not act.”
Real businesses pay their taxes and contribute to the common good. The squealing from the Tory funding City cliques is not the real voice of business.
He said: “The time has finally come to put an end to a society in which one group of people can play by different rules to the rest. There is nothing pro-business about defending tax avoidance. Millions of British people and businesses pay their taxes and they are damaged by this behaviour.”
Ed Miliband also highlighted that David Cameron, during his chairmanship of the G8 in 2013, had promised to make a crackdown on tax evasion one of his central goals. At that time he had demanded reforms from Jersey, Guernsey and other crown dependencies, including a commitment from each to make the true owners of companies located in their jurisdictions public.
Miliband said: “Cameron made this big promise 18 months ago that he was going to force UK tax havens in crown dependencies to open up and he has totally failed to meet that promise.
He said: “For this to be portrayed as anti-business is ridiculous. What I am saying is what the archbishop of Canterbury has been saying, the International Monetary Fund has been saying, and the OECD has been saying – a more equal society is a more efficient society. I believe in wealth creation and company profits, and for the government to play its part, and we have been working closely with business to shape that agenda.”
And on the attacks from the offshore Boots CEO, Miliband said in a Guardian interview, “Look, I find it unacceptable if someone lives in Monaco to avoid paying taxes and chooses to lecture the British people about they should vote in a general election, and say it is catastrophic if Labour is elected. I tell you what is catastrophic is tax avoidance on the grand scale and governments that do not act.”
Real businesses pay their taxes and contribute to the common good. The squealing from the Tory funding City cliques is not the real voice of business.