Calls grow for beneficiaries of COVID-19 bailout to reduce carbon emissions, halt dividend payments & share buybacks and not use tax havens
"If you want a bailout in Europe, don’t use tax havens", 23 April 2020
A growing number of European governments are insisting there won't be any emergency cash during the coronavirus pandemic for businesses registered in tax havens like Panama and the Cayman Islands...
[T]ax justice advocates say that these national measures could help boost transparency and, ultimately, a level playing field in global corporate taxation. “This is an important symbolic first step,” said Quentin Parrinello, who works on tax policy for the NGO Oxfam, “but much will depend on the modalities of the different proposals.” ...
[C]alls are growing to spend the unprecedented amounts of taxpayers’ money in bailouts ethically. In 2020, that means the beneficiaries should drastically reduce carbon emissions, not engage in dividend payments or share buybacks for a while and not dodge taxes...
For Oxfam’s EU tax policy adviser Chiara Putaturo, a better condition on the corporate bailout would be “to require public country-by-country reporting, so it would be possible to see where the money goes and whether companies are engaged in tax avoidance practices.”
Currently, only tax authorities know the full breakdown of where multinationals pay their taxes...