HARARE – Zimbabwe is losing US$106.6 million each year to tax havens, US$65 million through multi-national corporations and US$42 million by individuals.
According to the Tax Justice Network the amount is enough to vaccinate 6.2 million people and is equivalent to 30.5% of the country national health budget.
The 2021 State of Tax Justice, says countries are losing US$483 billion in tax a year to global tax abuse – an amount that is enough to fully vaccinate the global population against Covid-19 more than three times over.
Of the US$483 billion lost a year, US$312 billion of this tax loss is due to cross-border corporate tax abuse by multinational corporations and US$171 billion is due to offshore tax abuse by wealthy individuals.
“Global tax abuse continues to hit lower income countries more severely than higher income countries,” the report says.
“While higher income countries lose more tax in absolute number, their tax losses represent a smaller share of their revenues (9.7 per cent).
“Lower income countries in comparison collectively lose the equivalent of nearly half (48 per cent) of their public health budgets.
“The taxes that lower income countries lose would be enough to vaccinate 60 per cent of their populations, bridging the gap in vaccination rates between lower income and higher income countries,” the report says.
