The U.K. Department for International Development is apparently not doing as well as it could in its efforts to combat international tax evasion and avoidance, or so says the Independent Commission on Aid Impact, the group tasked by Parliament to evaluate U.K. aid spending.
The Panama Papers and a new international tax agenda set out by the Group of 20 and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, saw international tax evasion and avoidance shoot up the list of reform issues for developing countries, and DfID has been keen to help – on the face of it with good reason.
Developing country governments are comparatively weak in identifying and enforcing tax liabilities, and are often no match for major multinational corporations and their legions of tax advisers, leading to a fear that developing country citizens are being exploited.
About the author
Paul Davies
Paul Davies is Adam Smith International’s director of revenue reform and is responsible for all of Adam Smith International’s revenue reform work around the world. For the past 17 years he has managed multimillion, multiyear, multidisciplinary projects for a wide range of governments and donors in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. He was one of the first consultants to be active in Afghanistan in early 2002, and from 2004 directed DfID’s flagship program of reform and restructuring of the Revenue Department of the Ministry of Finance in Afghanistan.
