debateGlobal cooperation is needed to reform the international corporation tax system in the aftermath of the Paradise Papers, panelists at a World Economic Forum on tax avoidance have said.

Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of Oxfam International, said international tax avoidance was an affront to human rights. “It’s about people who don’t have access to the services they need to lift themselves out of poverty because of tax avoidance,” she said.



She called for a shift towards public transparency around corporate tax affairs as part of the solution and dismissed the suggestion that corporations were entitled to keep their tax affairs private.

“We are in a system where greed is good,” she said. “Companies are encouraged to maximise for their shareholders and that is why they avoid tax and slash wages.”

She called for a global agreement on tax cooperation to be forged at the UN, arguing that the OECD, which overseas agreements between wealthy countries, could not be trusted to fully consider the needs of developing economies.

The Irish finance minister, Paschal Donohoe, insisted that Ireland was not a tax haven following allegations by the European commission that it had helped Apple reduce its effective tax rate to 0.005%.

The Paradise Papers revealed how Apple had relocated to Jersey after international criticism of its use of Ireland to lower its tax rate. It is thought to have accrued more than $250bn tax-free offshore.

The Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz agreed with the suggestion that the OECD was unable to represent developing nations in tax discussions. “The problem is it’s trying to fix a broken system by the guys who are making a profit out of the broken system,” he said.

He said the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers investigations had exposed the problem of people hiding assets illicitly. “But there’s a problem of a global tax system that allows people legally to avoid paying taxes and leads to a global race to the bottom [in corporate tax policy].”

Quick Guide What is Davos 2020? Show Davos is a Swiss ski resort now more famous for hosting the annual four-day conference for the World Economic Forum. For participants it is a festival of networking. Getting an invitation is a sign you have made it – and the elaborate system of badges reveals your place in the Davos hierarchy. The meeting is sponsored by a huge number of international banks and corporations.

For critics, “Davos man” is shorthand for the globe-trotting elite, disconnected from their home countries after spending too much time in the club-class lounge. Others just wonder if it is all a big waste of time. The 2020 meeting is being advertised as focusing on seven themes: Fairer economies, better business, healthy futures, future of work, tech for good, beyond geopolitics and how to save the planet. Young climate activists and school strikers from around the world will be present at the event to put pressure on world leaders over that last theme.

Pierre Moscovici, the EU commissioner for economic and financial affairs, acknowledged calls for the bloc to lead global efforts to force multinationals to pay a fair rate of tax, as Stiglitz criticised the US president, Donald Trump, as “the tax avoider-in-chief”.



“The EU wants to be the champion. The EU wants to be the leader,” Moscovici said. He said he understood criticism of a recent decision to remove countries including Panama and Dubai from a blacklist of tax havens drawn up by the EU after the Paradise Papers revelations in exchange for a commitment to improve.

He also acknowledged complaints that the EU currently lacked enforcement mechanisms and needed strengthening. “A list without sanctions is not credible,” he conceded.