Anti tax evasion

French Catholic associations have launched a campaign to curb tax evasion and tax and judicial havens, denounce the lack of transparency in banking systems, and call for the rejection of any kind of legislation that protects, or provides immunity to, tax evaders. For tax evasion is a submerged system that needs to be combated, because its financial consequences favour the black market, and remove state funding from the weakest sections of society and from development projects in the southern hemisphere. What’s at stake here are billions of euros that are wrested from solidarity and pocketed by big business. This is the battle that a group of French Catholic associations are engaged in with a series of specific measures and with the publication of a 13-page document published in 55,000 copies with the title “At the service of the common good. In the name of their faith, may Christians dedicate themselves to the cause of stronger fiscal justice”. Protagonists of the initiative are “CCFD-Terre Solidaire”, Ceras, Caritas France and Justice and Peace France, with its President, Mgr. Michel Dubost, Bishop of Evry-Corbeil Essonne.Financial black holes. The document opens with an appeal to social responsibility, to the duty to contribute to the financing of public expenditure through the tax system. “This obligation – says the booklet – forms part of a minimal ethical precondition for the social responsibility of each one of us, without which society would be transformed into a jungle dominated by the law of the strongest. The phenomena of interdependency on the one hand, and the extreme poverty that afflicts some populations on the other, make the fulfilment of this obligation all the more imperative”. “Tax and judicial havens are black holes of international finance. Nor are they located only in some exotic island: often they are located in the very heart of big metropolises, in the business districts. These financial systems offer a high degree of opacity, especially thanks to banking confidentiality and the possibility to create bogus companies that preserve the anonymity of their owners and permit weak or non-existent tax regimes for non-residents”. In this way territories are created that permit businesses to evade tax, escape controls and even launder the dirty money of organized crime.A tool of solidarity and democracy. The turnover of this black market – denounce the French associations – is “colossal”. In France, tax dodging costs the country between 40 and 50 billion euro per year. But what are even more worrying are the consequences for the welfare state. “Without tax receipts – point out the associations – the State is reduced to impotence and solidarity is left to personal responsibility. The lack of public revenue for States considerably reduces their room for manoeuvre and damages the weakest populations. Redistribution policies are those most damaged as a result: public services such as healthcare and education cannot be guaranteed; investments for the future are blocked; and the public debt becomes problematic. And it is to compensate for such losses that States are left with no other option than to raise taxes on consumption, again penalizing the poorest sections of society, increase the pressure on firms that don’t have recourse to tax havens, add to the public debt or appeal for bailouts from the international financial organizations”. In response to this scenario, “the time has come to rehabilitate tax for what it is and what it ought to be: a tool at the service of solidarity and the common good, a means that contributes to social cohesion and to democracy”.Economic health. “We aren’t enemies of finance”, declares Guy Aurenche, chairman of CCFD-Terre Solidaire, even if he immediately adds: “we believe, however, that, far from being a question reserved for the experts alone, the problem of tax havens involves everyone and must be taken into the streets; it must be raised with our politicians; it must be heard at the ballot box. We believe that the time has come to do so. No one rejoices in the crisis. On the contrary it appeals to us in concrete terms and as a matter of urgency to overcome it”. It’s not the first time that Christians in France have led a campaign in support of fiscal justice; they have done so in the past and have achieved results: in 2008, the petition launched by a group of Catholic associations and published in the magazine “Pelerin” persuaded the President of the French Republic to review the status of Andorra and Monaco as tax havens. “The aim here – adds François Soulage, President of Secours catholique-Caritas France – is to combat a system that de facto prevents billions of euros and public money from entering into the circuit of aid for development, and since in times of crisis this aid is reduced, it is essential that the financial resources be sought wherever they exist”. Apart from the publication of the document, a series of other initiatives are planned by the Catholic associations. They include the campaign “Aidons l’argent”: its aim is to place at the centre of the G20 in Cannes (scheduled for 3-4 November) the “urgent” question of tax havens, and to “denounce this scandal”. “It’s not just a moral question; it’s also a question of economic health for the countries of the southern hemisphere, a central sticking point for development”. The campaign plans to send postcards and e-mail shots on these issues to President Sarkozy by 27 October and before the planned Summit in Nice (31 October-3 November), again with a view to the G20 in Cannes.