The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - a body that advises Britain and other European countries on tax and spend policies - has been accused of enabling global corporations such as Google Inc. (GOOG), Hewlett- Packard Co. and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) to dodge taxes by shifting profits into offshore subsidiaries.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – a body funded by UK taxpayers – has been accused of enabling global corporations such as Google, Hewlett Packard and Amazon.com to dodge taxes by shifting profits into offshore subsidiaries.
According to Bloomberg, the OECD has “issued reams of guidelines to promote ‘transfer pricing’ – paper transactions between corporate subsidiaries that allow them to push profits into tax havens by allocating income to different countries”.
The OECD is funded by taxpayer contributions from developed countries, including just under 10 million from UK taxpayers.
A quasi-governmental body that helps some of the world’s biggest economies set tax policy, the OECD “writes guidelines letting companies avoid taxes by moving income into tax havens, a practice it deems legal”, according to Bloomberg.
The OECD has previously backed George Osborne’s austerity drive.
Osborne has said he “value[d] the OECD’s expertise and advice on our economy”.
In 2011 it was estimated that tax avoidance schemes cost the UK £69.9 billion a year. Putting that into some sort of perspective, the cuts announced to welfare in 2010 were 18bn.
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