By José Antonio Ocampo, Joseph E. Stiglitz, and Jayati Ghosh
Dear Mr. President,
The world has welcomed your election and commitment to restore diplomatic engagement with the international community to the center of US foreign policy. By rallying governments to create the conditions for an equitable and environmentally sustainable global economic recovery, your leadership can encourage transformative changes.
For too long, international institutions have failed to deal with one of the most toxic aspects of globalization: tax avoidance and evasion by multinational corporations. Fair taxation of multinationals is needed to create the type of societies that we aspire to, and it must be a central part of any progressive tax system aimed at driving economic growth and creating high living standards for all. Ending corporate tax avoidance is also one of the best ways to tackle rampant inequality of wealth and income.
By shifting their profits to tax havens, large companies deprive governments worldwide of at least $240 billion per year in fiscal revenues. This shortfall affects not only the United States, where some 50% of overseas profits made by US multinationals are transferred to tax havens each year, but also the Global South, where revenue sources are more limited and hence reliance on corporate tax receipts to fund public services is greater.
