Governments worldwide are on track to lose $4.7 trillion to tax havens overall in the next decade if they keep following current rules, according to a new report.
The London-based nonprofit Tax Justice Network’s 67-page report argues that global tax rules developed since 2013 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have failed to significantly stem countries’ losses to tax abuse.
The report contends the United Nations is a better choice to lead global tax reform and should take over that role from the Paris-based OECD, which is essentially a club of rich nations.
The UN Secretary General is expected to report this fall on a possible UN tax convention that in particular would create a global tax body that would supplant the OECD as arbiter of global tax policy.
The Tax Justice Network report points to what it calls OECD’s most promising recent policy solutions for fighting tax evasion, including country-by-country reporting, automatic exchange of financial account information, unitary taxation, and a minimum effective tax rate.
“These policies have been rendered largely toothless under the pervasive influence of some OECD members, who are also among the world’s biggest tax havens,” TJN said.
