From the Revd David Haslam
Sir, - It was good to note that the Church Commissioners are
engaging at board level with Barclays in relation to a change in
culture (
News, 17 May). You make particular reference to the scandal of
the manipulation of the Libor rate, but that is (I hope) water
under the bridge. A far more important area to address is that of
tax havens, or, to be more accurate, secrecy jurisdictions.
This is especially true in the light of the recent Christian Aid
report (also
News, 17 May), which showed that companies with subsidiaries in
tax havens pay around 30 per cent less in tax. This is especially
important, of course, for developing countries.
Recent research by Action Aid showed that Barclays has one of
the highest numbers of subsidiaries in these jurisdictions, 471, of
which 197 are in British overseas territories or Crown
dependencies. In the Cayman Islands alone, it has 120. I recall at
the AGM a few years ago an elderly shareholder's asking the then
chairman why on earth they needed so many - to which he got the
usual anodyne reply.
It is blatantly obvious that the majority of these subsidiaries
were set up to assist Barclays' customers to avoid paying tax. Her
Majesty's Revenue and Customs are currently working through the 400
gigabytes of data leaked to the authorities by a whistleblower in
2009. These list people from 170 countries - politicians,
celebrities, business persons, the élite in various forms.
More than 200 lawyers and accountants are also under
investigation for the part they play. In the UK, many of these
people will be among the 1000 richest people, whose wealth,
according to the Sunday Times 2013 "Rich List", grew by
more than £35 billion in the past year; it now totals £450
billion.
This is happening in a "recession", while the poorest are having
their benefits cut and the NHS is being squeezed to pay for the
excesses of the bankers who got us into this mess - and some of
whom may well now be among those richest 1000. This degree of
inequality is totally unacceptable in any civilised society, never
mind one that purports to be Christian. Not only the Church
Commissioners, but all the Churches, should be up in arms at this
shocking situation.
The US economist Jeffrey Sachs has a very useful suggestion to
eradicate the deficit. He says that if you allow the richest one
per cent of US citizens to keep the first $5 million of their
assets, and then tax the rest at one per cent a year, you will
bring in one per cent of GDP per year - and they will hardly
notice. Raise it to two or three per cent, and you soon have the
deficit paid off, and we can return to a decent level of benefit
for the unemployed, disabled, and elderly, who will then spend that
money and get the economy going again.
Barclays are the tip of the iceberg of what has now become an
evil system. Among other things, it managed to pay 428 employees
more than £1 million last year. It is up to the Commissioners and
the rest of us to continue to expose this appalling situation, to
resist by all means possible the cuts that are taking place, and to
place maximum pressure on our Government to halt this continual
sponge effect, in which the rich suck money upwards from the poor,
and then hide it in tax havens.
What needs to be done is outlined in recent reports by Christian
Aid, Action Aid and the Tax Justice Network. If the Spirit is
saying anything to the Churches at this time, I believe that it is
this.
DAVID HASLAM
Convener of the Methodist Tax Justice Network
59 Burford Road
Evesham WR11 3AG
