3rd Jan 2020

WE NEED THE CHURCH TO SPEAK MORE

LOUDLY ABOUT TAX

On 10th December 2019, our national coordinator, Justin Thacker attended a policy and advocacy workshop in Brussels hosted by the Presidents of the Jesuit Conferences in Europe and Africa as well as the Social Affairs Commission of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the EU. The meeting was attended by representatives of the European Parliament, the European Commission as well as tax experts from various NGO and church groups. The workshop built on the work already undertaken as part of the Tax Justice and Poverty project of the Jesuits in Germany, Zambia and Kenya. In particular, ahead of the workshop, we reflected on the implications of that project’s final synthesis report.
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Key points raised at the workshop included:

• Africa suffers disproportionately from illicit financial flows, especially in regard to corporate tax avoidance
• African governments are not as aggressive as they need to be to curb IFFs, and so there is a need to strengthen civil society in Africa so that they can hold their national governments to account for their tax policies and practices.

• There was a general feeling that the EU could be doing far more to support African tax administrators – possibly through budget support mechanisms, but also as noted, through supporting civil society actors
• The EU is inconsistent (and hypocritical) in its approach to tax havens refusing to acknowledge any EU countries as havens while blacklisting other (non-EU) states simply because they refuse to comply with BEPS core protocols. The absence of the US in particular from the EU blacklist was viewed as politically motivated and inconsistent.
• There were repeated calls for public country by country reporting for all sectors (not just the banks), for an effective BEPS solution that actually advances tax revenues in poorer countries and for proper analysis of the impact on developing countries of EU tax policies
• It was noted that there remains policy incoherence within the EU in that investment policy is not synced with development policy. The former is about economic gain for EU even at expense of poorer countries, the latter is, in theory, about economic gain for poorer countries.
• In order to address these issues, there was a general consensus that BEPS needs to become effective, including a global minimum tax rate, and this led on to a discussion about the central role of civil society and the church to pressure for change. There was a recognition that EU officials, including the EU parliament may agree with tax reform but often member states blocked change, and therefore there is a need for ongoing pressure on member states. Comments made in regard to civil society pressure included “we rely on your pressure, and we rely on your ideas”, “Do not give up. Civil society pressure works.” “We need to hear from the church far far more, and far more loudly”; “we need to hear the church speak in support of women’s equality; the church can talk about transparency as a tool for social justice.”

• Finally, it was noted by some that the church has the conceptual and ethical resources to root a lot of this work. Pope Francis has talked of a globalisation of indifference, and has repeatedly criticised structures of inequality. There is a need to rediscover the common good, and promote contributive justice as part of that. There are strong moral reasons for ending tax abuse and there is a need for a church document outlining the moral case for tax justice and tax cooperation in Europe and globally.

In conclusion:
The one take home message was that civil society pressure does work. It just takes time, patience and resilience. There was almost a sense that EU officials need the cover of civil society pressure to press for the changes that they also want. The moral case for change is overwhelming.

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