Ahead of the G20 summit, PSI has released a report that shows the massive scale of corporate tax avoidance through profit shifting.

Read online: http://www.world-psi.org/en/g20-and-broken-international-corporate-tax-system  

The report, titled “Still Broken” finds that US corporations alone managed to shift $500-700 billion - a quarter of their annual profits - out of countries where the money was made and into a handful of low or no tax jurisdictions. This missing tax has real consequences. The report finds that G20 countries lose the most revenue but that developing countries are hardest hit as they rely most on corporate tax to raise revenue. The main winners are tax havens.  This translates into real human cost for the poorest people through cuts to public services.

PSI believes it’s time to build an international corporate tax system based on the public good and not national or corporate interest and has released a press release and visuals for affiliates to distribute to make these points.

Leaders at the G20 summit are poised to announce the OECD Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) program; the first real attempt to curb corporate tax avoidance on a global scale. However the BEPS program is not expected to properly address some of the key methods of tax avoidance such as how corporations are able to get away with using proxy ‘holding companies’ in low tax countries. The report (prepared by PSI, OXFAM, Tax Justice Network and Global Alliance for Tax Justice) is reminds world leaders that we will continue to fight until corporations stop placing the burden of their tax avoidance on the people and start paying a fair share.

As part of this work PSI is also a founding member of the Independent Commission of Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), which has amongst its members José Ocampo, Joseph Stiglitz, Magdelane Sepúlveda and Eva Joly. The ICRICT promotes credible alternative models to fix the international corporate tax system that is clearly fundamentally still broken.

·          Read the joint press release

·          Download the report Still Broken (PDF)

·          Download the full research paper (PDF)

·          See the table of missing tax payments

·          See the Missing Tax photo gallery

·          More about PSI's work on tax

Public Services International is a global trade union federation representing 20 million working women and men who deliver vital public services in 150 countries. PSI champions human rights, advocates for social justice and promotes universal access to quality public services. PSI works with the United Nations system and in partnership with labour, civil society and other organisations

Media advice from PSI - Read online: http://www.world-psi.org/en/g20-and-broken-international-corporate-tax-system