Friends join call for tax justice
Quakers have joined with others to call on business to ‘Say what you pay with pride’
Quakers lent their support to Tax Justice Sunday this month, joining other churches in calling on businesses to ‘Say what you pay with pride’ amid increasing public concern about tax avoidance.
The push on 7 July followed new polling conducted by ICM that has shown record levels of concern among the public about the use of tax avoidance practices by business in the UK.
According to Church Action for Tax Justice, of which Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) is a founder member, and which coordinated Fair Tax Week with Fair Tax Mark: ‘Over three-quarters of people would rather shop with (seventy-seven per cent) or work for (seventy-eight per cent) a business that can prove it is paying its fair share of tax – in both cases, up eight per cent points on 2018. An increasing number also said that it was important to celebrate businesses who can demonstrate good tax conduct and shun the artificial use of tax havens and contrived tax avoidance practices, up six per cent points on 2018, to seventy-five per cent.’
The group also said: ‘Nearly three quarters (seventy-four per cent) of the public thought that the UK should take a lead and force companies to show their income, profit and tax paid in each country in which they operate.’
Olivia Hanks, economics and sustainability programme manager for Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW), told the Friend: ‘Tax Justice Sunday is a new initiative we’re supporting, so it has been great to see some Local Meetings getting involved. It’s important to challenge businesses that don’t pay their share of tax, but we also need to celebrate those who do the right thing, which is what Fair Tax Week is all about.’
She added: ‘As part of Church Action for Tax Justice, Quakers are helping to start conversations about tax and its role in building stronger, more equal societies for the good of all. We hope to help make Tax Justice Sunday a regular fixture in the calendar.’
Paul Monaghan, chief executive of the Fair Tax Mark, said Church Action for Tax Justice and Tax Justice Sunday ‘provide a much needed counterbalance to the far-right economic fundamentalists, such as the Institute of Economic Affairs, who have twisted religious texts to justify their support for tax dodging and a general beggar-thy-neighbour approach to public services and society in general’.
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