Firms Based In Tax Havens Receive Almost £5 billion Of Covid Bailouts

Around a third of the companies that received financial support from the Bank of England as part of the government’s coronavirus bailout scheme, are based in tax havens, according to research by Tax Watch UK. 

The thinktank found that the companies liked to tax havens or financial “irregularities”, received £4.79 billion, which is almost 30% of all the money loaned out as part of the relief scheme.

An example of this is Baker Hughes, a subsidiary of American company General Electric, which was loaned £600 million, despite HMRC suing the latter for unpaid taxes going back 16 years.

Chanel is also among the companies to recieve the multi-million-pound bailouts, whose parent company is listed in the Cayman Islands, along with the cruise company Carnival, whose ships are registered in Panama and is connected with over 1500 cases of Covid due to outbreaks on its cruisers. 

TaxWatch UK director George Turner said to The London Economic that the government’s concern over supporting employment is “understandable”, but there are “ways in which governments can structure conditions” ensuring “better tax compliance.”