PACE has demanded new laws – and better application of existing ones – to crack down on tax havens and money laundering.
Approving a report by Stefan Schennach (Austria, SOC) on lessons from the “Panama Papers”, the Assembly said the revelations had caused “public outrage”.
“Citizens no longer wish to tolerate legal systems which allow taxation to be easily avoided by major companies and very rich people as well as ill-gotten gains to be stashed away, while they pay taxes”, the parliamentarians pointed out.
Politicians should show greater transparency in their business activities to stop the erosion of public trust, they said.
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They called for a series of steps, including “sound, transparent, stable and fair” national tax systems, better protection for whistle-blowers and greater resources for investigating tax fraud, avoidance and evasion.
