When our infrastructures deteriorate, when social benefits are frozen, when our living conditions are precarious, it is because of tax havens. A source of growing inequalities and colossal tax losses, the use of tax havens by large corporations and wealthy individuals explains austerity policies. Moreover, states have legalized these offshore schemes that contravene the very principle of taxation.
With formidable efficacy and clarity, and in the wake of the Paradise Papers leak, Alain Deneault raises the political questions of this legalized scam: How does one define the laws of complacency? What are the consequences of tax havens? How do we counter the private sovereignty thus conferred on the powerful? There is an urgent need to put an end to the process by which taxpayers finance banks through debt service and public services that benefit businesses all the while becoming poorer. Collectively, the issue of tax havens must be tackled so that what is legalized is no longer legal.