MPs call for Romney’s tax haven to be closed [View all]

[kpete]

MPs call for Romney’s tax haven to be closed

Mitt Romney’s week from Hell is about to get worse. On Saturday he was trounced by Newt Gingrich in the South Carolina Primary; tomorrow he will reveal his tax returns for 2010, a move he has been forced into; and now Westminster MPs are calling for his Cayman Islands tax haven to be closed.

The House of Commons Early Day Motion http://www.leftfootforward.org/images/2012/01/Mitt-Romney-tax-haven-edm.pdf (pdf) on “Tax Havens, transparency and the top 1%” states:

“This House notes the OECD and G20’s identification of the role of tax havens by wealthy corporations in fuelling the global economic crisis from 2009 onwards; is alarmed by reports that US former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is also using the Cayman Islands, a British territory, to avoid paying the same tax rate as other US citizens; is concerned about the continued use of tax havens by the top 1% in the US and UK to avoid paying the correct tax in their own country, particularly at a time when living standards are being squeezed and services lost for ordinary working people in many Western economies; and calls on the UK government to introduce urgent legislation to help close tax havens and increase transparency so that the very richest pay their fair share of tax in their respective countries and enable governments worldwide to invest more in jobs and growth.”

The Early Day Motion has been proposed by former treasury select committee member John Cryer, Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead.

He told Left Foot Forward:

“As a former member of the Treasury select committee, I think it is a disgrace that the Cayman Islands, a tax haven, can enable wealthy corporations and individuals such as Mitt Romney and others in the wealthiest 1% to avoid tax and still be cloaked in secrecy. Meanwhile all across the western world, hard-working people are seeing their living standards and take-home pay stagnate or reduced.

More: http://www.leftfootforward.org/2012/01/mps-call-for-mitt-romney-tax-haven-to-be-closed/
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/23/408937/british-romney-cayman-tax-haven/