Victories for protesters over tax avoidance and on TTIP expose how grassroots campaigns can overturn injustice and hold the powerful to accountTax avoidance is one of the mighty injustices of our time. Services are cut,justified by the lack of public money available, while mega-rich corporations and individuals find means to avoid paying tax. Companies that depend on state largesse – from infrastructure to an education system that trains their employees, and to in-work benefits – refuse to contribute in return. Small businesses that don’t have the means to exploit loopholes are destroyed by substantial businesses that do. At the bottom of the pecking order,benefit fraudsters are pursued for relatively paltry sums of money, while at the top, or accountancy firms attend design tax laws and then instruct their clients how to find around them. Tax avoidance epitomises an unjust social order: one in which different rules apply,depending on your wealth and power; and where societies are rigged in favour of shamelessly greedy elites. Related: Apple ordered to pay up to €13bn after EU rules Ireland broke state aid laws Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com