Tax, corporate responsibility and the UK's Cooperative Bank

TJN kicked off its corporate responsibility campaign in 2004 at an international CR conference at London's Chatham House. All the usual corporate big-wigs were there, powerpointing expensive graphics and flagging up donations to schools in Nigeria and clinics in Bolivia. TJN's John Christensen (a renowned party pooper) stood up in the midst of this corporate back-slap fest and asked: "Why do none of the world's largest companies publish information about what tax they pay in the countries where they operate and create their profits? Shouldn't paying tax in the right place and at the right time be treated as the starting point for the corporate responsibility agenda?"

According to John, silence reigned for what seemed like eternity as conference delegates pretended that no-one had mentioned the dreaded T-word: surely their PR teams hand out all those beads and bangles to distract from the fact that they don't pay their taxes!

Since then, TJN has been quietly working with various allies to develop a tax and corporate responsibility theme. See here, for example, and here.

We have also had discussions with our colleagues at the Cooperative Bank and the bank has followed its usual practice of consulting its customers / shareholders on an Ethical Policy Statement on tax and business, which reads as follows:

“We will not finance organisations that take an irresponsible approach to the payment of tax in the least developed countries.”

80,000 Cooperative Bank customers cast votes on this Statement, and 98 per cent of the customers who voted supported the Statement (what were the other 2 per cent thinking?!!)

As a result of this clear indication of support from their customers, the Cooperative Bank has adopted the following position:

"One of the most effective ways that businesses can contribute to poverty reduction is to pay income tax in developing countries. The exploitation of tax havens by multinational corporations operating in least developed countries is particularly harmful. We will withhold finance to those businesses that avoid paying tax in the least developed countries through the use of tax havens"

Its great to see the Cooperative Bank leading the way in corporate responsibility. All the more so since we bank with them (and very efficient they are too).


For the record, the bank has listed the following jurisdictions as tax havens (taken from the OECD39 listing): Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guernsey Sark & Alderney, Isle of Man, Jersey, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Monaco, Montserrat, Nauru, Netherlands Antilles, Niue, Panama, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Seychelles, Turks & Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands, and Vanuatu.


DISCLOSURE: Since its launch in 2004 Tax Justice Network International Secretariat Ltd has banked with the Cooperative Bank.