Labour leader Ed Miliband has gone on record to say that a future Labour government would take on tax havens. Outlining Labour's plans Miliband said outlying UK territories would be expected to co-operate or be blacklisted. Mr MIliband has written to the leaders of these countries issuing a warning; if the electorate in the UK return a Labour government with Miliband as leader they will have six months to get their houses in order. PM David Cameron claimed months ago that he was working on getting tax havens to be more transparent but little if anything has changed. The Labour press team said in a statement "not one of the tax havens linked to Britain as Overseas Territories or Crown Dependencies have yet delivered on Cameron’s promise that they would publish a register showing who owns the companies registered there – and some have explicitly refused to do so." Will Mr Miliband have the power to enforce real change? The "Labour government will withdraw the protection they [the countries] get from international scrutiny and ask the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to place them on its tax haven blacklist" continues the press statement. But with six months from May as a deadline, if Labour win, there will be time for tax avoiders to move money elsewhere. As the election draws near Miliband is finally talking Labour plans. This could mean others stealing his thunder or scuppering plans but he needs to make bold moves to win over the electorate. With the Tories vowing more austerity cuts if they are re-elected they will continue to protect the uber wealthy and hit the poor and vulnerable. How many in high office have links to these tax dodging dominions and countries? Who they are will be interesting but will this information really be revealed? British people who suspect that austerity is all a set up may have a point. In 2012 the Guardian reported £13tn hoard hidden from taxman by global elite. A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore – as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together – according to research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network.
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