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Evasione multinazionale, chi paga il conto
New research by US think tank Global Financial Integrity (GFI) shows that developing countries are losing up to $US 107 billion per year in tax revenues as a result of trade mispricing by multinational companies, and the figure is growing each year. The amount represents an average of 4.4% of the entire developing world’s average revenue.
The report entitled “The implied tax revenue loss from trade Mispricing” refers to trade mispricing as “the deliberate over invoicing of imports or under invoicing of exports, usually for the purpose of tax evasion”.
GFI research shows that countries like Zimbabwe are losing more than 30% of their tax revenue to trade mispricing, with others also losing significant amounts, such as Nicaragua (27%), the Republic of Congo and Mali (both 25%).
Moreover, the report shows that trade mispricing trends are increasing over time, as tax revenue losses from worldwide trade mispricing have increased from $US 65 billion in 2002 to $US135 billion in 2006.
It concludes that trade mispricing is one of the most prominent drivers of illicit financial flows, mostly channeled through tax havens, which have been estimated to amass over $US 1 trillion per year.
The study looks at just one specific form of trade mispricing, that which arises when transactions are reinvoiced. Due to this, GFI’s estimates are lower that those of previous research conducted by Eurodad member Christian Aid, which estimates that tax losses for developing countries from all forms of trade mispricing are approximately $US160 billion per year.
Authors of the report state further reasons why their estimates may be significantly understated, including the absence of data for many developing countries, mostly in Africa; economic models that cannot fully calculate illicit flows; and the fact that researchers did not consider revenues losses due to the evasion of customs duties and value-added taxes.
Greater transparency is therefore needed to curb this phenomenon, including by ending bank secrecy and curtailing trade mispricing. Other key recommendations outlined in the report are:
-Require country by country reporting of sales, profits and taxes paid by multinational corporations;
-require beneficial ownership information of all subsidiaries, trusts and foundations and
-require automatic cross-border exchange between government authorities of tax information on personal and business accounts.
Download the full report here