David Cameron says there’s still too much tax evasion – isn’t that his fault?

Last Updated: September 30, 2015By

David Cameron has accused some British overseas territories and crown dependencies of not doing enough to tackle tax evasion and money laundering.

But shouldn’t we be asking, after more than five years, why David Cameron’s government has not done enough to tackle tax evasion and money laundering?

Why do we have a tax gap of anything up to £120 billion a year? Recovering that money would clear the national deficit at a stroke and make huge inroads into the national debt – and it is money that legally belongs to the UK government.

David Cameron and his Chance(llo)r, George Osborne, have been extremely relaxed about collecting it from the fatcat businesses and individuals who can afford to bank their money offshore, preferring instead to lean hard on the poor – and hardest on benefit claimants, one of whom, it has been shown, died because of the policies of Cameron’s government.

Now we’re being given this:

The prime minister took the offshore financial centres to task on Wednesday during a trip to the Caribbean and said not enough progress was being made towards transparency.

Over the past few years, Cameron has repeatedly urged territories such as the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands to introduce central public registers of company ownership, thereby allowing law enforcement agencies to trace criminals behind firms that are currently anonymous.

This has met fierce resistance among some territories and Grant Shapps, a Foreign Office minister, appeared to backtrack on the UK’s requests for a central register during a trip to the Cayman Islands over the summer.

Is it good enough?

Source: David Cameron says not enough is being done to tackle tax evasion | Business | The Guardian

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10 Comments

  1. AndyH September 30, 2015 at 10:40 pm - Reply

    Remind me Cameron, who is the First Lord of the Treasury?

  2. Neilth September 30, 2015 at 11:14 pm - Reply

    Perhaps now that Lord Ashcroft has ‘squealed’ Cameron will go after him and all the other tax dodgers. Pigs may well fly.

  3. Adam Clifford September 30, 2015 at 11:59 pm - Reply

    They couldn’t spare the time from hunting down the poor and vulnerable,engaging in hate campaigns,sacking large numbers of staff from the inland revenue.And they didn’t want to upset their true constituents,the people they really work for-the rich and corporate.

  4. Jeffery Davies October 1, 2015 at 5:06 am - Reply

    See ossie see cameroooon see your ministers who have offshore accounts the pot calling the kettle again

  5. marcusdemowbray October 1, 2015 at 7:06 am - Reply

    CaMoron asking for “more transparency”! Why not a bit more “transparency” in the DWP? During the 2012 Olympics when the Tax scandal was big news, CaMoron and Gidiot both PUBLICLY said that they would tackle tax avoidance immediately. Until now they have done diddly-squat-nothing of any use. Now they ARE doing something…telling overseas territories and dependencies to do something. I thought LEADERS were supposed to show LEADERSHIP and SET A GOOD EXAMPLE. The only example of “tackling tax avoidance” that the world has seen CaMoron doing…is accepting £8 million donations from non-dom tax avoider Lord Trashcroft. Pot, kettle, black are words which come to my mind.

  6. David Woods October 1, 2015 at 8:14 am - Reply

    Ministers and lords use the same tax evasion loopholes themselves – Do you really believe they will do anything to remove their ‘golden paradise’!

  7. mrmarcpc October 1, 2015 at 5:47 pm - Reply

    The rich are not paying their way because of his rich self and his rich cronies in office with him protecting their rich pals in not paying their taxes, so yes, it’s his fault!

  8. fathomie October 1, 2015 at 8:04 pm - Reply

    There is a great article in the last Private Eye about just how little Cameron and Osbourne are actually doing behind the rhetoric.In fact, as the Eye points out, Cameron’s has left it ‘up to the dependencies to do the right thing’. Of course, they are all now just rushing to voluntarily flush out people who are depositing billions in their accounts, thus accruing a tidy amount of money each year for the banks and trusts in question. Not.

  9. mohandeer October 1, 2015 at 8:07 pm - Reply

    We also learned that the UK is now considered to be the top money laundering country in the world. As you have pointed out Mike, Osborne promised to recover £5 billion from Tax Evasion, where is it then?

  10. David Bacon October 2, 2015 at 9:43 am - Reply

    Cameron and Osborne are two of the four Just Men – i.e. they are just about to do something about tax evasion, but, er, not just now, there are other more important things to do such as give vast sums of money to China to build eye wateringly expensive new power stations, then to get the same chinese to build HS2. Dave has some serious chillaxing to do, must keep the little lady and kids happy: where to next month Sam? But don’t despair, the problem of tax evasion is in good hands, that is, the hands which feed the tory party and the hands which take the money (sorry, donations).

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