Borrowing the costumes from Oxfam HQ, we dressed as the Chancellor to protest that, despite the positive noises made at June's G8 summit, nothing has actually been done to stop powerful global companies avoiding paying tax in developing countries, money which is vitally needed to overcome poverty. In fact, a recent amendment to the UK's Finance Bill which would have made it harder for companies to avoid paying tax in developing countries was overturned.
Chris Garrard, a student campaigner with Oxfam, said:
‘We've dressed as George Osborne to highlight that it is the treasury who need to take the lead on making company ownership information public. Many large companies have set-up and use ‘phantom firms’, dummy businesses where they avoid tax by stashing away profits overseas. Proposed amendments to the recent finance bill that would have started to tackle this issue were defeated but with the backing of local MPs like Andrew, we can apply the pressure to make sure the call for change isn't ignored.’
The ‘Enough Food IF’ campaign is raising the issue of tax dodging as just one of the root causes of why 1 billion people around the world go hungry every day. Developing countries currently lose more every year through various forms of ‘tax dodging’ than they receive in aid – more than enough money to end global hunger twice over. Andrew agreed to raise our concern with the government, having already supported the Enough Food for Everyone...IF campaign at its Oxford launch back in January.
The Enough Food For Everyone...IF coalition is asking supporters to Tweet David Cameron to stop 'phantom' companies being set up purely to avoid paying tax. If you use Twitter, please take this action.
Naturally, straight after our lobby meeting, we Tweeted, and put a link up on OOG's Facebook page, so please share if you can!
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