Richard Murphy - #Brexit, Apple and Tax Justice [Archive]

Baby Steps

15th June 2017, 11:51

LINKED TO THIS IS SOME INFO ON WHY THE TORIES WENT FOR THE REFERENDUM

From 'Veritas et Libertas (https://veritasetlibertasdeannolxxxix.wordpress.com/2017/06/03/10/)':

Tories’ cunning Brexit plan revealed

Illyricum Protéctor Eórum UncategorizedJune 3, 2017

With Brexit, Tories managed to protect the assets of the wealthy tax avoiding individuals from new the EU regulation.
David Cameron announced his historic decision to hold a referendum and give the British people a “simple choice” of determining whether or to stay in the European Union. Within minutes Theresa Villiers, Priti Patel, Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling, and John Whittingdale appeared at the Vote Leave headquarters, holding a banner with a slogan “Let’s take back control”. Speaking on behalf of six Tory Brexiteers, Grayling explained that they want to restore the sovereignty of the British nation.
If anything, the EU strengthened the sovereignty of the British nation. It removed borders between the Irish and EU membership was used to deter Scottish from voting pro-independence in 2014.

Initially, David Cameron was against leaving the EU, however, something happened in 2013 unexpectedly he favoured an in/out EU referendum. To comprehend this sudden U-turn, one has to examine Cameron’s activities in Brussels.
According to the Guardian, Cameron stepped in to shield offshore trusts from EU tax crackdown in 2013:
“David Cameron intervened personally to prevent offshore trusts from being dragged into an EU-wide crackdown on tax avoidance, it has emerged. In a 2013 letter to the then president of the European council, Herman Van Rompuy, the prime minister said that trusts should not automatically be subject to the same transparency requirements as companies… But when some in the EU wanted to extend the same principle to trust structures, Cameron said in his letter to Van Rompuy that tax authorities were already “gaining access to more information than ever before on trusts, especially offshore trusts,” through information-exchange agreements with tax authorities in different countries.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/07/david-cameron-offshore-trusts-eu-tax-crackdown-2013

However, Brussels refused to comply and on 28 January 2016, the European Commission produced its first draft of The Anti Tax Avoidance Directive. Within less then a month, David Cameron told a press conference in front of 10 Downing Street that he secured a special status for Britain. However, instead of a jolly victorious appearance for securing a special status within the EU, Cameron looked rather grim and announced that UK will vote on whether to remain in the EU on Thursday 23 June.
Later on, it was revealed why Cameron was so keen to protect offshore trusts from the new EU regulation.
“David Cameron’s father Ian ran an offshore investment fund that avoided ever paying tax in the United Kingdom, according to the so-called Panama Papers.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/panama-papers-show-david-camerons-father-avoided-paying-tax_uk_57025c46e4b0c5bd919b70bf

Following the public release of Panama Papers, which exposed an alarming scale of tax evasion from companies that operate within the EU, Brussels decided that it will no longer tolerate companies that operate in blacklisted tax havens. According to Financial Times:

“Brussels is to push for new disclosure requirements forcing companies operating in blacklisted tax havens to come clean about their profits and tax payments in a sign the crackdown response to the Panama Papers revelations has begun to snowball worldwide… The European Commission is preparing next week to strengthen a long-planned measure to force corporate disclosure of tax payments, profits made, and the number of employees in individual countries, so that the disclosure applies not only to activities in Europe but to those in a planned blacklist of tax havens outside the EU.”

https://www.ft.com/content/5ee51bf4-fda3-11e5-a31a-7930bacb3f5f

Backed by the press that is owned by tax avoiding media tycoons, who influenced the British voters to leave, Tory Brexiteers managed to safeguard the sovereignty of British wealthy tax avoiders from the new EU regulation.
Tories’ Brexit stance and ongoing austerity measures manifest their unfaltering commitment to protecting tax avoiding individuals.