Tax Havens

[Intro: Saul Williams]
And it goes like it's supposed to be
Ain't nobody scared, came prepared, cryptocurrency
Can not feel love on the market

[Monologue: Gabriel Zucman]
The international tax haven system syphons off $700 billion dollars in profit each year from sovereign states. Even in normal economic times, the damage to those countries is extraordinary. Countries like Britain, France, Germany, and Nigeria lose 20% of their corporate tax revenues to these offshore secrecy jurisdictions. In the year approaching the COVID-19 outbreak, close to 60% of U.S. multinationals foreign profits were booked in tax havens. Profits moving to these havens are totally artificial. There's very, very little real economic activity in tax havens. The economic and thus social scarring of this pandemic is without modern precedent. So, how do we end tax haven extraction in a time of emergency? First, we should publicly highlight that big multinationals have a tax deficit. The tax deficit is the difference between what a corporation should pay if it were subject to a minimum tax rate of say 25% in each country where it operates and what this company actually pays. Second, countries must collect this tax deficit. To do so, we can simply look at what sales are actually made. When this company makes 10% of its sales in Britain, then Britain collect 10% of their tax deficit. We don't even need a global agreement to end tax havens. Any single country can unilaterally decide to collect the tax deficit of tax-dodging multinationals today. If several nations join forces as nations like France, Denmark & Poland effectively have, in barring companies registered in tax havens from state bail outs, this could be enough to render tax havens useless for major companies. And collecting the tax deficit of giant multi-nationals would be vital to treasuries and public services now on course for colossal strain

[Outro: Saul Williams]
And it goes like it's supposed to be
Ain't nobody scared, came prepared, cryptocurrency
Can not feel love on the market
Wouldn't change a word, but I'll spark it
When you make a move, it was downright
You saw it, win or lose, it was downright
Yes, I'm deep in the trenches
Ain't go no names for them kind of dimensions
Ain't breathless
Ain't breathless
Ain't breathless