The scandal and cost of tax dodging to developing countries was the focus of a seminar held by Christian Aid and the Scotland Malawi Partnership on Wednesday 7 October. The seminar complemented a Christian Aid report, The Missing Millions, which details how the five countries supported by the Scottish Government’s international development fund lost £43 million in tax revenue between 2005 and 2007.
Opening the seminar Jack McConnell MSP, former First Minister and the Prime Minister's Special Representative for Peacebuilding, said, "We all have a responsibility to support development across the world, and that includes those companies which cynically use developing countries to avoid paying their full tax liabilities. They are taking money directly from the world's poorest people. It has to stop."
Transfer mispricing and false invoicing – the most common forms of tax dodging - enable multinational companies to shift profits from where they are actually made to where tax rates are low, concealing the scale of their profits in any one country and thus their tax liability.
Through a series of presentations and workshops delegates learned more about tax dodging and explored how tax could be a more sustainable revenue stream than overseas aid. Many of the presenations can be viewed again on the Scotland Malawi Partnerships Slideshare page.
Many delegates signed up to become “tax campaigners” to support Christian Aid’s calling for an end to tax dodging through the establishment of greater transparency in global financial transactions.
Find out more information on the Big Tax Return.