Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 24, 2025

Coronavirus patients at the Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran Iran--1 March 2020 copy

Over $427 Billion is Lost To Tax Havens Every Year

As governments around the globe face budgetary pressures due to the COVID-19 public health crisis, the urgency to crack down on tax havens – responsible for an estimated loss of over US$ 427 billion each year – has become even more crucial, experts said in response to new findings. 
A new annual report, published on Friday by the Tax Justice Network, reveals how much each country loses each year, totaling $245 billion directly lost through tax abuse by multinational corporations, and a remaining $182 billion from wealthy individuals that hide their money from local authorities through the use of secretive offshore assets.

These losses, it says, are equivalent to the annual salaries of nearly 34 million nurses worldwide, or about one nurse’s salary per second.

“The reason corporations and the mega rich abuse billions in taxes isn’t because they’re innovative. They do it because they know politicians will let them get away with it,” said Rosa Pavanelli, general secretary at Public Services International in response to the findings in the report.

“Now that we’ve seen the brutal results, our leaders must stop the billions flowing out of public services and into offshore accounts, or risk fuelling cynicism and distrust in government,” she added.

The reason frontline health workers are brutally understaffed and lack basic protection equipment, she explained, is because governments have spent decades refusing to meaningfully tackle tax abuse by corporations and the mega rich, instead opting for austerity measures that have imposed budget cuts on essential services.

According to the report, while wealthier countries lose a larger amount due to tax havens, the burden is felt most heavily by developing countries in Latin America and Africa, which lose 20.4 percent and 52.5 percent of their public health budgets respectfully.

At the country level, the report found that recouping annual tax losses would lift over three million South Africans out of poverty, pay back over a quarter of Greece’s chronic debt to its various creditors, or almost entirely mitigate the economic damage caused by Vietnam’s most destructive typhoon in the last twenty years.

The Tax Justice called on the leaders of the world’s wealthiest countries, largely responsible for dictating global tax policy, to discuss formative changes that should be made to tackle this issue at the G20 Global Summit meeting, which will be hosted by the Saudi G20 Presidency over the weekend.

An important first step, it said, would be for the G20 and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to make due on its commitment - which it first agreed to in 2013 – to require public country-by-country reporting, which would force multinationals to publish financial information indicating where they are stashing their profits so that the public can hold them to account, along with the jurisdictions that are accepting these funds.

The report found that the Cayman Islands, which denies countries of over $70 billion each year, is the most responsible for global tax losses each year. As a British crown dependency, it is part of a network of tax havens operating out of the UK, responsible for over a third of global tax losses.

The Caymans, which were briefly on the EU tax haven blacklist before being removed several months later after it was determined to have complied with international tax rules, highlight another problem identified by the Tax Justice Network, which is that the EU is not going after tax havens that are inflicting the most damage on government budgets.

While EU blacklisted jurisdictions were found to have caused less than two percent of global tax losses, EU member states – which, for methodological reasons cannot be listed themselves – caused a total of 36% of losses.

“The Tax Justice Network has long criticised the EU’s blacklist for ignoring major tax havens while focusing on jurisdictions that are secretive but play an insignificant role in the global economy,” it said in its press release.

Alex Cobham, the organization’s chief executive, said that these powerful tax havens, which often have enough political clout to avoid facing any repercussions for their actions, “have programmed the global tax system to prioritise the desires of the wealthiest corporations and individuals over the needs of everybody else.”

“The pandemic has exposed the grave cost of turning tax policy into a tool for indulging tax abusers instead of for protecting people’s wellbeing,” he said.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Airlines Evaluate Flight Cancellations Amid Escalating US-Iran Tensions
Starmer Invites Innovators to Join Government Talent Scheme
UK Economy’s Strong Opening Quarter Shows Signs of Cooling
Harrods Seeks Court Order to Secure Al Fayed Estate for Victims
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
We have new information and breaking details to share about what is shaping up to be a historic air campaign tonight
Six Massive Bombs Dropped on Fordow; Trump: 'A Historic Moment for the U.S., Israel, and the World'
Fordow: Deeply Buried Iranian Enrichment Site in U.S.–Israel Crosshairs
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize.
BBC Demands Perplexity AI Immediately Stop Using Its Content
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
Political Turmoil Resurfaces in Belgium Amid Economic Concerns
Fed policymakers divided on timing of interest rate cuts
Trump signals imminent agreement with Harvard University
Inheritance tax referendum alarms Swiss billionaire community
Japan cancels bilateral security meeting amid US defence demands
AI skeptic Emily Bender warns that ‘the emperor has no clothes’
Israel Confirms Assassination of Quds Force Commander in Tehran
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
FBI and Senate Investigate Allegations of Chinese Plot to Influence the 2020 Election in Biden’s Favor Using Fake U.S. Driver’s Licenses
Vietnam Emerges as Luxury Yacht Destination for Ultra‑Rich
Plans to Sell Dutch Embassy in Bangkok Face Local Opposition
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump's $5 Million 'Trump Card' Visa Program Draws Nearly 70,000 Applicants
DGCA Finds No Major Safety Concerns in Air India's Boeing 787 Fleet
Airlines Reroute Flights Amid Expanding Middle East Conflict Zones
Elon Musk's xAI Seeks $9.3 Billion in Funding Amid AI Expansion
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Taiwan Imposes Export Ban on Chips to Huawei and SMIC
Israel has just announced plans to strike Tehran again, and in response, Trump has urged people to evacuate
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
EU Proposes Ban on New Russian Gas Contracts
Analysts Warn Iran May Resort to Unconventional Warfare
Iranian Regime Faces Existential Threat Amid Conflict
×