UN hopes 'tax inspectors without borders' will help combat tax evasion

BY Reuters Updated Wednesday, July 15th 2015 at 00:00 GMT +3

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wants world leaders to put aside "narrow self-interest" to break a deadlock over how to finance the organisation's new global development agenda.

“For too long, some multinationals have used aggressive tax planning to reduce their tax bills, or avoid paying taxes altogether,” said the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Secretary-General Angel Gurria. The organisation unveiled the initiative together with United Nations Development Programme. “This simply cannot go on”, Gurria said. Speaking at the opening the UN’s Third Financing for Development conference, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (pictured) called on world leaders to put aside “narrow self-interest” to break a deadlock over how to finance the organisation’s new global development agenda. See Also: Accountants’ body launches international standards course in Kenya According to International Monetary Fund better tax systems would bolster budgets and give governments more funds to invest in social programmes. It says in many low-income countries, taxes as a per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are under 15 per cent against at least 24 per cent in advanced economies. Pilots of the tax initiative have succeeded, Gurria said. In Colombia, tax revenue from transfer pricing audits increased 10-fold in three years to $33 million after OECD advice, Colombia’s Deputy Finance Minister Andres Escobar Arango said. Mispricing exports and imports is one method some multinationals use to shift their profits to low-tax regimes, and deprive poor countries of money owed them. Advocacy groups were, however, sceptical that the OECD could act as an impartial adviser, given that some of its members are regarded as tax havens. In the initiative’s pilot phase, Britain sent experts managed by accounting firm PWC, which helps multinationals lower tax bills, to help with auditing in Rwanda, European Network on Debt and Development’s Tax Justice Policy Manager, Tove Ryding said.

“That’s a clear conflict of interest,” she said of the initiative.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wants world leaders to put aside "narrow self-interest" to break a deadlock over how to finance the organisation's new global development agenda.
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