According to a recent report by an advocacy group, governments across the world lose at least $90bilion every year from unpaid tax by multinational companies.
Tax Justice Network reports that “states were depriving themselves of $89bn (£75bn) a year by allowing some of the world’s biggest companies anonymity over the way they conduct their tax affairs.”
Tax Justice Network, in its State of Tax Justice 2022 report, called “for an end to the concession made to multinational companies that they would not be named and shamed if they provided information about shifting profits into tax havens under a global initiative.”
There are some companies, the Guardian reports, have voluntarily made their country-by-country reports public; according to estimates by Tax Justice Network, “governments could save 28 per cent of the $316bn lost in cross-border tax abuse in 2021 if a loss of anonymity shone a light on the activities of all multinationals.”
The U.K, for instance, lost £27billion to multinational corporations underpaying tax. Rachel Etter-Phoya, a senior researcher at the Tax Justice Network, argues that: “The OECD concession to corporate tax abuse is a political choice to turn a blind eye. Our governments patronise us with talk about making ‘tough decisions’ to deal with the global cost of living crisis, then choose to stay quiet about multinational corporations that have privately confessed to cheating the public out of billions in tax.