DOTAS and developing countries

David Quentin
Consultant Farrer & Co

As was reported by Tax Journal on 20 March a consortium of development charities and anti-poverty campaigners operating under the ‘Enough food for everyone IF ...’ banner has proposed that the disclosure of tax avoidance schemes regime (DOTAS) be extended to include transactions effected by UK-headquartered multinational groups which threaten public revenues in poor countries.

The proposal takes as its starting point the proposition that certain jurisdictions are sufficiently poor and have sufficiently unsophisticated tax systems that they may properly be characterised as ‘vulnerable’. These are places which suffer from endemic poverty and appalling under-investment in public health education and infrastructure. We in the developed world are used to blaming such problems on corruption...