Des milliers de personnes se réunissent à Londres aujourd’hui pour appeler l’action des dirigeants mondiaux à Davos. Alors que le monde en développement perd chaque année 1000 milliards de dollars en évasion fiscale et en flux financiers illicites, 30 à 60 milliards de dollars par an sont transférés illégalement hors d’Afrique chaque année – l’équivalent de 40 ans de financement du développement à l’étranger.

La City de Londres est au centre d’un système mondial de paradis fiscaux et de juridictions secrètes qui bloquent la transparence et facilitent le blanchiment d’argent.

Retrouvez ci-dessous le communiqué en version originale de l’association Tax Justice Network https://www.taxjustice.net/

• Thousands gather in London today to call for action from world leaders at Davos as the developing world misses out on one trillion dollars every year in tax evasion and illicit financial flow
• US$30 – 60 billion per year is transferred out of Africa illicitly every year – equivalent to 40 years of overseas development funding
• The City of London lies at the centre of a global system of satellite tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions that block transparency and facilitates money laundering

Thousands are marching in London today as part of a global protest to fight inequality ahead of Davos next week, with experts calling for the UK and its territories to take drastic measures to stop the UK becoming the most aggressive haven in the world. The UK and its territories is already the largest haven for tax dodgers, and afterBrexit experts predict the UK to become an even more aggressive, ‘Singapore on Thames’- style prime destination for illicit financial activity as it will no longer be constricted by European regulations.

30 countries are joining today’s Fight Inequality Alliance protest with people gathering in Whitehall at 12pm today calling for urgent change to policies which rob the developing world of vital resources.

Yesterday journalists gathered with experts at the City of London to unearth some truths about the UK’s involvement in tax dodging and how deregulation will hit the world’s developing nations hardest. The event culminated in an illumination of « Tax Haven UK: A Threat to Us All, #Tax Justice to #FightInequality » projected on the City of London Corporation and the Bank of England.

Dereje Alemayehu, Executive Co-ordinator for the Global Alliance for Tax Justice said “Brexit will embolden the government to make the UK and its territories the capital of secrecy. How is it possible that there is a building in the Cayman Islands where 12,000 companies are registered or in the British Virgin Islands, 36 companies are registered per inhabitant?

We know that $US 30-60 billion leaves Africa in illicit financial flows every year  – and the UK is playing a huge part in this. Africa is not poor, it is made poor by the drainage of resources into rich countries. The international community needs to stop facilitating illicit financial flows out of the developing world. We need tax justice – urgent public registration of accounts, governments to exchange information on tax evasion and drastic tightening of regulations, to redress the inequalities millions of people face’.

John Christensen, Chair of the Tax Justice Network said « Since the 1950s, Britain and its spider web of tax havens have been at the forefront of plundering countries of the majority world. The big fear after Brexit is that Britain will continue to enable plundering and will lead a race to the bottom on tax rates and financial regulation.” 

Women are hit the hardest, with tax systems fuelling gender inequality and the City of London’s Square mile playing a central role in the injustices women face.

Roosje Saalbrink, Policy and Advocacy Manager, Womankind Worldwide said “Unfair global tax systems, enabled by and channelled through the city of London, hit women and girls the hardest. We need appropriate public investment and policies that support the provision of gender-transformative universal public service that redress the burden of unpaid care, of which women perform 76.2% globally.

I call on all States and the global community to address the barriers that prevent the economy working for women.”

Susan Himmelweit, Chair of the Policy and Advisory Group of the UK Women’s Budget Group said, “European regulations have benefited women greatly in this country – nearly all progressive changes have come from the European Union, and Brexit will be an opportunity to deregulate finance. If rich countries like the UK pursue a race to the bottom in cutting taxes, not only will women in the UK suffer, the ability of poorer countries to raise taxes will be undermined, with disastrous consequences for women worldwide”.

Sources: 

What does Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal mean for women? report (Women’s Budget Group)

Tax & Women’s Rights globally 

Tax Justice Network’s Corporate Tax Haven Index

2015 Report of the AU/UNECA High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows: In Africa alone, US$ 30 and 60 billion per year has flowed from Africa illicitly[1], which was more than the amount required to cover the continent’s external debt in 2008 and more than the total that has been given to Africa in official development assistance from 1970 – 2008

1. The Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ) is a growing movement of civil society organisations and activists, including trade unions, united in campaigning for greater transparency, democratic oversight and redistribution of wealth in national and global tax systems. GATJ comprise the five regional networks of Africa, Latin America, Asia-Australia, North America and Europe, collectively representing hundreds of organisations: ​Tax Justice Network-Africa​, la ​Red de Justicia Fiscal de América Latina y el Caribe​ (RJFLAC), ​Tax & Fiscal Justice Asia​, ​Tax Justice Europe​, the ​FACT Coalition​ and ​Canadians for Tax Fairness​. 
2.  The Tax Justice Network is an independent international network launched in 2003. TJN’s core mission is to ‘change the weather’ on a wide range of issues related to tax, tax havens and financial globalisation. TJN pushes for systemic change. A fast, flexible, expert-led, activist think tank, TJN is not politically aligned. 
3. Womankind Worldwide is a global women’s rights organisation working in solidarity and equal partnership with women’s rights organisations and movements to transform the lives of women. Based in the UK, Womankind supports women’s movements primarily in Africa and Asia to strengthen and grow by providing a range of tools, including technical support, communications, connectivity and shared learning, joint advocacy and fundraising. Womankind also advocates for governments and international agencies to protect and promote women’s rights through their policy and campaigns work.  
4. The Women’s Budget Group  is an independent network of leading academic researchers, policy experts and campaigners. A not-for-profit monitoring impact of government policies on women.