Luxembourg, Ireland, Cyprus, and the Netherlands are among the world’s 10 worst tax havens, despite an ongoing EU crackdown on tax avoidance and profit shifting across the bloc. The findings come in a report by the charity Oxfam, which aims to expose the worst offenders in the “global race to the bottom on corporate tax.” “Corporate tax havens are helping big business cheat countries out of billions of dollars every year,” said Esmé Berkhout, a tax policy adviser for Oxfam. “They are propping up a dangerously unequal economic system that is leaving millions of people with few opportunities for a better life.”...The listing criteria was based on countries with the “most damaging tax policies,” such as zero corporate tax rates, which ultimately harm the average taxpayers, the NGO said. “When corporate tax bills are cut, governments balance their books by reducing public spending or by raising taxes such as [value-added tax], which fall disproportionately on poor people,”...Last week, a report by the European Network on Debt and Development showed that the number of sweetheart deals between EU governments and corporations has increased by almost 50 percent over the past two years...[Refers to Apple, Ikea & Amazon}