Britons say company owners should not be allowed to hide their identity as anger at tax dodgers grows

Britons believe company owners should not be allowed to hide behind anonymity for tax or other reasons, according to a poll for Christian Aid.

The ComRes poll follows the recent G8 meeting in Northern Ireland, at which global leaders agreed to take steps to crack down on tax havens.



Some 57 per cent said company owners should not be allowed to hide their identity, with the same number branding such behaviour ‘suspicious’.



Anonymity: Some 57 per cent said company owners should not be allowed to hide their identity

The reason for such anonymity is tax avoidance, according to 78 per cent of people, while 70 per cent believe it is simply to hide their wealth and 59 per cent suspect criminal behaviour.



Christian Aid senior economic justice adviser Joseph Stead called on the UK Government to lead the way.



He said: ‘At the G8 the UK Government endorsed the principle of a register of individuals who control UK companies, for use by police and tax authorities. The Prime Minister wanted to go further and make it public. If he changes his mind now, he will undermine his own commitment to transparency.



‘Our poll shows there is clear public demand for a register that is open to all. Business Secretary Vince Cable must resist the inevitable pressure from some businesses and tax lawyers against such a registry, and deal a fatal blow to corporate secrecy.



‘Phantom companies are like Russian dolls. Core ownership is disguised. That secrecy enables nameless criminals to evade tax, launder money and pay bribes safe in the knowledge that even the police will find it very difficult to trace them. This causes harm worldwide, not least in poor countries, which lose billions every year to tax evasion and corruption.'



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Christian Aid said developing countries are deprived of $160billion a year as firms are not required to pay tax in all the countries where they make a profit.



The poll also revealed that only 23 per cent of respondents were aware that a UK company can be legally set up with anonymous owners, and only nine per cent said company owners had a right to such privacy.



On the topic of tax avoidance by multinationals, some 84 per cent of those polled expressed anger, up from 80 per cent in an earlier ComRes poll for Christian Aid in February this year.



Almost nine out of ten people, 87 per cent - up from 84 per cent in the previous poll - think that multinationals’ accounts should be more transparent and publicly available. And 83 per cent believe multinationals receive more lenient treatment from the taxman than individual tax payers, up from 80 per cent in February.

