Tax dodging by some unscrupulous companies operating internationally is costing developing countries an eye-watering amount of cash. How much exactly? Christian Aid estimates it’s around US$160bn each year. That figure is more than the Global South receives in international aid from all the richest countries in the world put together. 

The existence of tax havens (certain countries in which companies pay little or no tax at all by law) and the phenomenal amount of financial activity and trade that passes through these zones, makes the already shadowy system all the more sinister.

Revenue from tax is money which could be spent funding education, kitting out hospitals and improving public and community services, and instead it’s being lost through tax dodging and tax havens; financial and economic loopholes that few people fully understand, and even less people are aware of.

At the World Social Forum in Dakar last week, a coalition of international NGOs launched a global campaign demanding that the G20 commits to ending tax haven secrecy when it meets in France later this year.

Here’s something you can do to help break this system of financial trickery, and expose the injustices that are affecting the lives of so many people who deserve so much better.

TAKE ACTION: Click here to Email Nicolas Sarkozy, Nick Clegg and David Cameron, and demand that effective action to end tax haven secrecy is firmly on the G20 agenda.

To get the lowdown on tax justice, read the full article here