POLITICS: Leaked documents reveal global tax evasion is rife within the UK's largest bank HSBC

#SwissLeaks relating to HSBC brings systemic tax evasion into the spotlight in Australia and around the world.

Green Left Weekly reported on how the leaks effect Australia, but of course the financial industry and corporations do not restrict themselves to country boarders.



This comes after leaked documents from a former HSBC employer were provided to French authorities and eventually given to Frances leading newspaper 'Le Monde'. After analysing the huge volume of data Le Monde involved 'The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' (ICIJ), as well as journalists from 45 countries.

ICIJ have produced an overview of the breakdown of information. One of these pages states:

"The secret files obtained by ICIJ — covering accounts up to 2007 associated with more than 100,000 individuals and legal entities from more than 200 nations — are a version of the ones the French government obtained and shared with other governments in 2010, leading to prosecutions or settlements with individuals for tax evasion in several countries. Nations whose tax authorities received the French files include the U.S., Spain, Italy, Greece, Germany, Britain, Ireland, India, Belgium and Argentina."

Obviously the pressure of being rich is so great they are forced into these extreme situations.

The documents pertain to a systemic scheme that actively and intentionally assists individuals dodging tax. 

Post by The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

While this is breaking news in many countries the Swiss government has applied criminal charges against the whistleblower. Despite this, the revelations continue to play out across the globe, like those in Greece where the former finance minister Giorgos Papaconstantinoufaces "faces criminal charges of breach of trust, doctoring an official document and dereliction of duty growing out of his alleged failure to act on the list when he received it and his alleged removal of the names of three relatives from the list."

Discontent is also growing in the UK with the prime ministers (David Cameron) actions, or lack there off, with Downing Street rejecting the need for an inquiry. 

A couple of the key findings outlined by ICIJ include:

• HSBC served those close to discredited regimes such as that of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, former Tunisian president Ben Ali and current Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad.
• Clients who held HSBC bank accounts in Switzerland include former and current politicians from Britain, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Kenya, Romania, India, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Lebanon, Tunisia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Paraguay, Djibouti, Senegal, Philippines and Algeria.

This entire debate raises the question, how exactly should tax dodgers be penalised. There will always be someone that finds a way to hack the system, it is inevitable. As such, investigation and prosecution penalties should be increased.

Many penalties applied to corporations are weak in comparison to the gains and this in lies the problem, but will politicians act? That is the question.

Post by Indian Express.