EU countries vow to resist global laws for taxing the wealthy

The European Union flag

Just a week after countries of the world met at the United Nations headquarters to confirm their support for new global laws to tax the wealthy, finance ministers of the European Union have signalled their intention to oppose any substantive progress.

During the recent debate on the proposed tax regime for the rich, wealthy nations like the United States, countries of the European Union, and the UK remained silent and didn’t contribute anything to the discussions.

Now, instead of those proposed laws, the EU finance ministers are recommending that “the EU and its Member States consider a non-binding multilateral agenda for global taxation”.

But this is in direct contrast to the binding agenda that the UN is trying to put in place.

EU finance ministers’ call for a non-binding tax agenda for the rich also directly clashes with the European Parliament’s call earlier this year for EU countries to support a binding UN tax convention.

Tax experts argue a UN tax convention is urgently needed to prevent countries from losing nearly US$5 trillion to tax havens over the next decade.

The experts say this is the equivalent of losing a year of worldwide spending on public health.

A UN tax convention would create the first ever, globally inclusive, democratic process to set tax rules and standards for rich people and corporations.

If such a tax convention is adopted, some of the laws which govern the BVI’s financial service industry could change. This is because the territory remains one of the biggest financial services jurisdictions in the world, managing trillions of dollars in assets belonging to rich companies and individuals.