Book review

Sally Campbell sends us this review of The Great Tax Robbery, by Richard Brooks

Richard Brooks, whose book is subtitled How Britain became a tax haven for fat cats and big business, quotes Oliver Wendell Holmes, an American Supreme Court Judge, who said in 1927, ‘I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilisation.’ Perhaps the idea reassured him, for when he first contemplated writing a book on tax avoidance, the prospect of turning over 40% of the potentially dazzling profits to the taxman was slightly deflating. Then he thought of the return on his tax investment, and realised that every pound paid in tax would bring the following benefits:

7p for immediate access to professional healthcare for his family
5p for his children’s education
2p for living in relative security
2p approximately for national defence
11p for pensions and social security for his compatriots and his future self
½p to aid the developing world
3p in interest to the various institutions from which we collectively have borrowed

Brooks does not doubt the overall value he gets for his money.

We hear a great deal about small-scale tax evasion such as cash-in-hand plumbing, piano lessons, hairdressing etc. We are also aware of the offshore accounts and dodgy invoices hidden from the taxman. Evasion of these direct taxes costs the UK treasury some £40bn annually, and more if you include evasion of indirect taxes such as VAT. But this is nothing compared with the systematic tax avoidance now being tackled by the Public Accounts Committee under chair Margaret Hodge MP.

Richard Brooks, himself a former tax inspector, wrote his book out of a need to expose how large multinationals regard tax avoidance merely as good financial planning. He charts how the UK has become a global tax haven that serves the super-wealthy, while everyone else picks up the bill. This well written, understandable financial book exposes some shocking facts. Thousands of British state schools and NHS hospitals, for instance, are owned by companies based in offshore tax havens. Multinationals like Google and Starbucks operate almost tax-free in the UK and billions are tucked away in secret Swiss bank accounts.

Brooks rightly questions why it is the little people who are the only ones to pay taxes; why the rich, the multinationals and ‘celebrities’ do not support our country, our schools, our health system and infrastructure, even though they and their employees all use them. His account is shocking and riveting, but highly readable. Without tax input from all people and companies working and living here, the nation cannot hope to reverse the cycle of decline, and it must be asked why the Treasury and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) turn a blind eye to national and international tax avoidance.

The Great Tax Robbery by Richard Brooks
Oneworld Publications Ltd.
ISBN 978-1-85168-935-4 £12.99
E-book ISBN 978-1-78074-102-4