Conservationists should take note of tax dodging and its potential links to biodiversity loss, argues Jonny Hanson, although research is needed to clarify the relationships.
Santa Claus is in trouble. A recent cover of the satirical British magazine,Private Eye saw him being heckled for living offshore and not paying tax in the UK. This irreverent take on Father Christmas may have been in jest, but it underscores the magnitude of the issue: tax dodging is highly political. Especially since the financial crisis of 2007-08, and from the grassroots to the great and the good, it has rarely been out of the public spotlight.
That’s because tax dodging is big business. Christian Aid, an international development NGO, estimates that $160 billion of tax is lost every year by developing countries due to tax dodging by multinational companies (MNCs) alone. This is 50% more than the entire global aid budget.