International relief organisation Christian Aid has announced the winners of its new Alternative Tax Awards.

Categories winners include bilateral tax information exchange agreements (Most Overhyped Reform of the International Tax System), Barclays (Tax Haven Enthusiast of the Year) and P&O cruises owner Carnival (Low Tax Rate Achievement Award).

PwC, KPMG, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and the International Accounting Standards Board were joint winners of the Greatest Potential for Tax Reform award.

The organisation is seeking to highlight the 'devastating effect corporate tax dodging has on poor countries.'

According to Judith Cavanagh, tax campaign manager at Christian Aid, multinational corporations dodge around $160bn (£102bn) in taxes in the developing world every year.

‘This is one-and-a-half times the total annual amount of aid that poor countries receive and is desperately needed to fund public services such as hospitals and schools. We estimate that if the money was used according to current spending patterns, then the lives of some 350,000 children under five would be saved each year.

‘Much of the money that goes missing ends up in tax havens. The accounting rules must be reformed to prevent this happening. Tax dodging costs lives,' she said.

Christian Aid has audaciously invited winners to collect their awards outside the venue of a co-inciding tax event this evening.

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