The revelations provide a glimpse of the moral bankruptcy of British governments which have done little to tackle tax avoidance at home or through crown dependencies and overseas territories such as Bermuda or the Cayman Islands. Once again the Paradise Papers draw attention to the handiwork of intermediaries who oil the wheels of dubious practices. No government is ever going to succeed in tackling tax avoidance without shackling the tax avoidance industry operated by lawyers, big accountancy firms and finance experts. An even bigger problem is that HMRC is colonised by the tax avoidance industry and large corporations, who dominate its operations and are, in effect, allowed to write tax law. None of what I propose would offer a magical solution to the deeply embedded problems of tax avoidance, but would help to begin the development of an antidote.

Source: The Guardian November 06, 2017 11:30 UTC