Them and us fishes, photo Suzanne Beishon

Them and us fishes, photo Suzanne Beishon   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Billionaire exodus to tax havens

A third of British billionaires have moved to tax havens in the last ten years, between them avoiding billions of pounds of tax.

They include Britain’s wealthiest man, Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe, who held workers and the community at Grangemouth oil refinery to ransom in 2013 – forcing them to agree to a draconian package of cuts to their terms and conditions or face the plants closure.

According to the Times, British citizens in tax havens and their companies have made £5.5 million in political donations since 2009 – with the bulk of that going to their representatives and big business lackeys in the Tory party and Blairite wing of the Labour Party.

Tax havens include the beautiful sun-drenched Caribbean locations of the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands and Belize; for those who prefer the city life there is Monaco; or for billionaires who want to stay closer to home there is the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands where wealthy residents who rent or buy a £1.75 million property can qualify for a 1% tax on income.

The Socialist Party says tax the super-rich! Trade union action to end the cuts to the government departments responsible for chasing unpaid and avoided tax. For a socialist government to take into public ownership the top 150 companies and the banking system that dominate our economy. Run them under democratic working-class control and management, with compensation only paid on the basis of proven need.