"Corporations secretly lobbying UN to allow tax avoidance in its anti-poverty agenda", 23 Jun 2017

Multinational corporations are lobbying the U.N. behind closed doors to keep tax avoidance off the list of targets in the Sustainable Development Goals, say advocates of global tax reform.

Many experts cite tax avoidance by corporations and wealthy individuals as a major driver of inequality and poverty worldwide…

Legal tax avoidance is cited by many as a major global problem that especially impacts developing countries…

…By some estimates, governments lose out on anywhere from an estimated $200 billion (if the definition is limited to avoidance) to more than $1 trillion each year (if you include evasion) in tax revenues.

Reports prepared in the run-up to the finalization of the SDGs in 2015 listed tax avoidance as an illicit flow, but it was not named specifically in the final targets.

Corporations are taking advantage of the language…

…[Civil society] advocates say they have a strong case for including tax avoidance in the definition for illicit financial flows…[Refers to Microsoft]