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Whose work is 'tax paradises'?

Paradise Papers show that, the capitalist states made it possible to take the money that has been earned/gained to the 'tax havens' in the country.

Whose work is 'tax paradises'?

The world public has been debating the Paradise Papers, that reveals the tax evasion of monopolists, politicians, millionaires and billionaires. And it seems that they will be discussing this for a longer time.

In fact, this is not a new discussion. Although the names of the documents change, the essence is the same. Similar discussions were made on the Panama Papers published last year which is known as the largest "leak" so far. Similarly, there were incidents such as "Swiss Leaks" in 2015, "Luxemburg Leaks" in 2014, "Offshore Leaks" in 2013, "WikiLeaks" in 2010. In all of these cases, there were names of monopolies, heads of state, ministers, politicians, and millionaires.

Despite a "leak" almost every year, the exploiting classes continue to do the same thing over intermediary lawyers in order to avoid taxing the state in their services because the system consciously creates the gaps that allow the evasion of the rich's tax.

Are only the rich, who are greedy, always saving more money, using these gaps to evade tax? Of course no. Just like "Panama Papers" among the data published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, which has an important responsibility for the classification of "Paradise Papers", there is information that state-owned public enterprises in Germany have also evaded tax on the state. In other words, the state is also evading tax from itself.

According to a report published under the title of "State Paradox", Fraport, which operates a public institution, Frankfurt Airport, also has "mailbox firms" in "tax havens". Fraport, which has established companies in Luxemburg, Cyprus and Malta, pays less tax to the state in this way. Most importantly, Ministry of Finance of Hessen province, where Fraport is located, has defended the fact that they were aware of the situation in response to a question in 2013, saying that there was no legal problem and that it was "done to make the tax harmonious".

Moreover, it is not just Fraport that does this. According to the documents in the Paradise Papers, the publicly owned HSH Nordbank and Bayer Landesbank have also established companies in so-called paradise to tax-hijack.

Likewise, Deutsche Post, which is a 20 percent shareholding partner of the state, is also among the tax evasion companies with the same methods. According to the news in Süddeutsche Zeitung, Deutsche has insured cargo vessels, cars, trucks and employees over Marias Falls Insurance Co. Ltd., founded in Bermuda Island. For this purpose, each euro transferred to Marias Falls Insurance Co Ltd. is exempted from tax.

The Deutsche Post, operating globally, could, of course, have done the same in Germany. But they had to pay a lot of tax for it. The Federal Ministry of Finance, on the basis of the new information revealed, explains that every possible trade by law is legal, so there is no crime.

In fact, this statement of the ministry summarizes all the arguments. The capitalist states have made it possible to take the money that has been earned/gained to the "tax paradises" in the country. Laws were enacted and regulations were made accordingly. Otherwise, millions or billions of euros cannot be taken to another country.

Therefore, it is precisely hypocrisy for governments to pretend that they have just learned all these issues after the leak of documents. The most important point that should not be overlooked from the mass of information is that what has been taken to "tax havens" is the wealth of the country. French Economist Gabriel Zucman has found that Germany loses 17 billion euros a year due to tax evasion and the ways to pay fewer taxes. Zucman says this amount is 60 billion euros in the EU.

It shows that in the case of using 17 billion euros for education, health, and infrastructure in Germany, people having no possibility of tax evasion will breathe a little. But governments are making plans to get more taxes from the public than the evaded tax indirectly and directly. For this reason, the system is basically functioning with the taxes paid by the employees. Like the "Panama Papers", "Paradise Papers" clearly shows how states help the rich and monopolies to evade taxes. At the same time, this also shows how appropriate is the demand for money that is gained by getting more taxes from the monopolies and millionaires is being spent on areas such as health and education once again.


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