Report
by UK charity Oxfam calls for a crackdown on tax havens as the
world's wealthiest hide $7.6 trillion from taxes
The world's
richest 62 people now own as much wealth as half of the world's
population, according to a report by the charity Oxfam. Super-rich
individuals saw an increase of 44 percent since 2010, taking their
cumulative wealth to $1.76 trillion - equivalent to the total owned
by 3.5 billion of the world's poorest people.
The UK-based
charity on Monday also said tax havens were helping corporations and
individuals to stash away about $7.6 trillion, depriving governments
of $190bn in tax revenue every year.
Speaking to
Al Jazeera, Helen Szoke, Oxfam Australia's chief executive, said that
there were no appropriate mechanisms to check if wealth was being
shared appropriately.
“We
believe there is a need for commitments from global business leaders
and political leaders for major tax reform to get rid of the tax
havens,” Szoke said. “There's too much leakage of what
should be paid in taxation exacerbating this gap [between rich and
poor].”
Referring to
economic growth in Western countries, such as her native Australia,
Szoke said little wealth was reaching the impoverished. “The
startling figure in our domestic context in Australia is that where
there has been wealth generation in the past decade, none of that has
actually trickled down to some of the Australians who are poor.”
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