A question of morality

The daily Les Echos sees the campaign against tax havens primarily as a question of morality: "Having first done away with golden parachutes, the wind of morality that has been blowing since the financial crisis is now sweeping across another totem of deregulated capitalism: tax havens. By assembling 17 allegedly model states at an international conference in Paris French Budget Minister Eric Woerth and his German colleague, Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück intended above all to send a political message ... The big clean states want to mobilise support to impress the small tax havens. In this respect the absence of the United States weakens the message. Does one really have to emphasise that tax havens can only thrive alongside tax hells? Does a country that deducts 44 percent of the national income every year and in which the introduction of a tax limit at 50% of income causes a scandal really have a tax system that is beneficial for the economy?"

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