Fabio De Masi calling for tax justice in Bratislava

Fabio De Masi

• European Union 2016

The Vice Chair of the European Parliament's Committee of Inquiry on money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion (PANA), MEP Fabio De Masi (GUE/NGL), has been invited by the Slovak Council Presidency to address today's Interparliamentary Conference on stability, economic coordination and governance in the European Union at the National Council of the Slovak Republic in Bratislava with one of a key note speech on tax justice.
 
De Masi is foreseen to speak alongside the two renowned international tax experts Richard Murphy (Professor of International Political Economy at City University London and Director of Tax Research, UK) and Prem Sikka (Professor of Accounting and Director of the Centre for Global Accountability at the University of Essex, UK).
 
De Masi comments ahead of his speech:
 
"Tax dodging by big business and the wealthy undermines prosperity and democracy. A corporate giant such as Apple paying just 50 Euro of tax on 1 million Euro of profits falls nothing short of theft. Money laundering obstructs tax justice and enables criminal and terrorist finance.
 
The majority of EU citizens labour under the longest post-war depression aggravated by austerity and the dismantling of the welfare state. This is a betrayal of our youth which suffers from unemployment and is deprived of dreams and opportunities. Tax justice is also paramount to reduce public debt and fund much needed public investment.
 
The European Commission must push for corporate transparency via encompassing country-by-country reporting, an objective black list for tax havens that also addresses corporate opacity at sub-federal level - such as for Delaware or Nevada in the US and the crown dependencies in the UK - and prohibits banking with blacklisted tax havens. We also need to phase out patent boxes which do not foster R&D as well as consolidation and distribution of EU wide corporate profits according to economic substance.
 
The loopholes in the money laundering directive such as allowing corporations to register nominee directors must be addressed. I will also remind parliamentarians of the fate of the whistleblowers Antoine Deltour, Raphael Halet and the journalist Edouard Perrin facing retrial in Luxembourg and underline European Parliament's call for stronger whistleblower protection."
 
You can find the full text of Fabio De Masi's speech here.