Campaigners renew call to crack down on tax dodgers

Public-service union PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka will join activists at a Commons event to launch a renewed campaign for tax justice instead of cuts in jobs and services.

Campaigners will also demand action to stop huge sums being salted away off-shore in British dependencies such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

Activists are furious that the City of London is the financial nerve centre for these tax havens and supports an army of pinstriped lawyers and accountants devoted to helping companies dodge tax.

War on Want executive director John Hilary, who will play a major role in on Wednesday's event, declared: "Now is the time to fight back against the cuts and in favour of tax justice."

Leading campaigner Richard Murphy, who is director of Tax Research UK, said it made "no sense" for the government to close over 200 tax offices by next year while billions of uncollected revenue was being lost.

He insisted: "The current crisis in government finance is a lack of revenue, not one of excess spending. So we need to collect the money owing, not cut spending on essential public services."

Campaigners are demanding much tougher laws against tax avoidance. They also want multinational companies and rich individuals to pay a fairer share of tax.

Another demand is for a change in the tax allowance system which allows wealthy people earning over £100,000 a year to claim pensions tax relief amounting to £10 billion every single year.