We need your help. Billions of pounds are disappearing into tax havens around the globe every year, and we need to take action.
Via loopholes and shady accounting, big corporations and the world’s super rich are squirreling away up to £380 billion a year – that should have been paid in tax – into tax havens, according to our allies at Tax Justice Network.
This is a vast sum, which could be used to build hospitals and schools, reduce poverty and improve lives around the world.
Instead it is becoming ‘dirty money’ – hidden in secretive places like the British Virgin Islands – boosting the bank balances of corrupt politicians, gangsters and oligarchs from across the globe.
This often happens through shell companies, which are the getaway cars for crime, corruption and tax dodging. Secretive shell companies allow people to hide their identity – and their dirty money.
The good news is that we can do something about it. We are not powerless to stop this dirty money.
The UK government can stop dirty money
Our government has the capacity and responsibility to tackle the flow of dirty money into British tax havens. Let me explain.
Many tax havens, like the British Virgin Islands, are British Overseas Territories.
The UK Parliament has the ability to pass laws that apply to these places, in certain circumstances.
In 2018 the Anti-Money Laundering Act required the UK government to make the British Overseas Territories be more transparent about their shell companies.
The UK government said this would happen through the publication of public registers of ownership.
These registers would reveal who owns the companies registered in the Overseas Territories – and therefore who owns the money stashed in the companies.
They would hugely reduce the level of financial secrecy in these places. The UK, and many other countries, already have such transparency measures in place.
The UK government said that the British Overseas Territories must have these registers in place by the end of 2023. The Territories all agreed to do this.
However very little progress has been made. Only Gibraltar has introduced a public register of ownership.
You can pressure the government to act
Our government has a duty to help – and pressure – the British Overseas Territories to create these public registers of ownership.
We want you to write to your MP and ask them to pursue the issue.
Your MP can write to the Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, and insist he take action – and pressure the Overseas Territories to introduce these public registers.
If your MP knows that you, their constituent, care about tax avoidance in the British Overseas Territories they are much more likely to take action.
We have built an easy-to-use tool with which you can send an email to your MP.
It includes a letter that has all of the important details for your MP to understand the situation properly. It only takes a few minutes to send.
Hundreds of billions of pounds disappear into secretive tax havens every year – lost tax revenue, which should be used to fund better public services and poverty reduction globally.
The British Virgin Islands is the number one corporate tax haven. It is a British Overseas Territory, for which our government has responsibility.
Through inaction, our government is enabling huge amounts of tax avoidance via the British Virgin Islands and other Overseas Territories.
As citizens of the UK we have a special ability to demand an end to these tax havens. We can hold our government accountable.
Please consider sending a letter to your MP, to alert them to this situation – asking them to pressure the Foreign Secretary to take action.