"Wayne Swan: Tax avoidance impoverishes us all. Fighting it requires challenging the powerful", 11 Jan 2016

…[T]wo of Australia’s largest global mining companies, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, were exposed for aggressive transfer pricing activities costing the public billions of dollars in revenue. When global companies seemingly as respected and large as these operate in this cavalier way, it compromises the integrity of the social contract and green lights others to follow in their tax avoiding footsteps…A progressive tax system for corporates and individuals is central to the capacity of nations to fund their own growth. It is one of a number of structural reforms required to lift living standards across the developed and developing world. Rampant tax evasion torpedoes this central platform of inclusive growth and is now a structural cause of growing global inequality. Unless there is concerted global action to protect the revenue bases of both developed and developing economies, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) developed by the United Nations are unachievable…[T]ax avoidance or evasion on such a grand scale impoverishes us all. When companies fail to pay their fair share of tax, revenue must be found elsewhere – from other businesses or individual taxpayers. The billions of dollars extracted are forever lost to health or education or infrastructure investment that improves the lives of people across the community, but is also vital for productivity growth and so ultimately supports the bottom line for businesses…The corporate veil should not hide the moral responsibility of those who run them and the decisions taken in their name…[Also refers to Allergan, Pfizer]