This morning at 12 noon, the Fundación Alternativas presents the colloquium Tax havens: the great evasion of the 21st century, with the participation of Diego López Garrido, executive vice-president of the Fundación Alternativas; Susana Ruiz, head of Tax Justice for Oxfam International; Carmen Cámara, professor of Tax Law at the UDIMA, and Emilia Delfino, journalist for elDiarioAR.com and member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Ignacio Escolar, director of elDiario.es, will moderate the event.
The ‘Pandora Papers’ have once again revealed one of the greatest economic scourges of the 21st century: tax havens. The leak of some 12 million documents on the fortunes of powerful people and politicians around the world has revealed the networks that are built in the business world to move money fraudulently. According to the investigations carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which includes, among others, La Sexta, El País and eldiarioAR, the Pandora Papers reveal the creation of more than 27,000 offshore companies between 1971 and 2018, with some 30,000 beneficiaries. In Spain, 751 opaque companies appear. The emeritus king, Juan Carlos I, is another well-known figure linked to tax havens. After years of investigation, the monarch’s name has come to light in shady dealings such as the construction of the AVE to Mecca or the sale of Banco Zaragozano, operations for which he allegedly collected commissions that he hid in tax shelters. The investigation into the former head of the Spanish state also focuses on money laundering, bribery and influence peddling.
Tax evasion through tax havens negatively affects the revenue collection of public coffers of states and international organisations, as well as the private economy, fostering inequalities between territories and causing a tremendous impact on the welfare state. It is a network designed to allow the wealthiest to hide their fortunes in territories that offer anonymity and low or zero taxation. The discussion can be accessed via the Foundation’s YouTube and Twitter channels.
