ENDING TAX SECRECY: We're not giving up...

SPEAK's Big Dress that campaigned for corporate responsibility in the noughties
Signed and sent off you Pray & Post card? Well, here's another way to back up your efforts: let's get an amendment in the Finance Bill to stop the tax secrecy that cheats developing countries out of billions every year!

 

Our latest Pray & Post card calls on David Cameron to sort out the tax-dodgers when the G8 comes to Northern Ireland this June. However, we actually have an opportunity right now to enforce that people who owe taxes, pay taxes (Romans 13:7).

Unfortunately, George Osborne failed to announce a new level of corporate transparency on Budget Day - something we'd been hoping for (and something SPEAK are quite used to campaigning for!). However, through the coming weeks the Finance Bill will be debated in Parliament, and so there is still a chance to get the amendment we need: a requirement for UK companies and wealthy individuals to report their use of tax schemes with an impact on developing countries. By doing so, the UK government will then be able to pass this information onto these countries' tax authorities, and help them recover what is owed.  This will help developing countries collect the right amount of tax, instead of being cheated out of desperately needed tax revenue like they are at the moment.

TAKE ACTION

  1. Send an email to your MP asking for the relevant amendment, by filling in your details below
  2. Why not think about how your consumer choices affect tax avidance too? You can pray and campaign about this issue by following the example of one SPEAKer in Manchester here.
  3. Understand the link between tax-dodging and land-grabbing through this Prezi presentation here.