More action needed on tax havens | Letters

I hope AB InBev, as the new owner of SABMiller, will look into ActionAid's allegations of tax-avoiding by its new purchase (Report, 13 October). In our Calling Time investigation into the complex tax affairs of SABMiller, we claimed the company used a massive network of 65 tax-haven companies to siphon money away from African countries. We claimed that by routing money through Mauritius, Switzerland and the Netherlands, SABMiller was avoiding 20m of African taxes every year. Though SABMiller has strongly denied these claims, it appeared to us that Marta Luttgrodt, whose tiny beer stall stands in the shadow of its Ghanaian brewery, was paying more tax than SABMiller in Ghana. Corporate tax avoidance in developing countries leaves healthcare, schools and other key public services starved of resources. AB InBev must take this opportunity to help poor countries find a sustainable route out of poverty.
Anders Dahlbeck
Tax justice policy adviser, ActionAid UK

" There are signs of progress in ending tax dodging by transnational corporations (OECD hopes reforms will help wipe out global tax avoidance industry, 6 October). However, the role of tax havens remains to be addressed and there has been little development in the transparency which was promised, not least among those that the UK controls, such as the Caymans, the British Virgin Islands and the crown colonies. It is also the case that neither the OECD nor the G20 represent large numbers of the developing countries who are most in need of information and advice. There is a role here for the UN tax committee, which should be much-enhanced but is continually sidelined by well-resourced bodies like the OECD. And it is not yet clear how the new regime would prevent schemes like that used by Astra Zeneca (Report, 5 October), setting up subsidiaries in the Netherlands through which to make 1.8bn of loans to its UK operation and thus avoid tax. GSK was found out in a similar scam in 2012, involving 6.34bn of loans. The fact that lobbyists for the business community were once again able to water down proposed rules to recommendations of best practice says it all. Corporations still resist paying their fair share for the public services that they themselves depend on.
Rev David Haslam
Methodist Tax Justice Network