Charity claims ‘false accounting’ is costing lives
Christian Aid claims 1000 children a day die because of ‘false accounting’, minimizing tax liabilities
Lives are being lost to disease and poverty in poor countries because of
illegal trade-related tax evasion,
Christian Aid
claims in a report.
The charity has calculated the tax evasion costs the developing world at
least $US160bn (?81.5bn) in lost revenue a year and says the companies which are
using ‘false accounting’ to reduce their tax liability are the culprits,
Director of Finance reports.
If the funds were instead allocated according to current spending patterns,
the lives of 350,000 children under the age of five – 250,000 of them infants –
could be saved every year.
The amount of tax evaded through ‘false accounting’ is almost one and a half
times the aid to the developing world every year and is in addition to the
amounts lost through legal tax avoidance, the report notes.
Further reading:
BBC pays £106,000 withheld from charities
Germany and France urge evasion blacklist review
Read
the Director of Finance story
