mr president at this time one has to ask why all this focus on tax issues tax cooperation and tax governance
you only have to look at the evidence in a number of member states to consider the answer
we have countries that have run up big debts
in my own country the british government has been spending money it does not have and now has to plug a massive gap in the budget
even before the financial crisis we had countries that are known not to be collecting sufficient taxes to cover the public services that are needed by the citizens of those countries
we are also spending taxpayers monies on propping up companies that have failed and are being badly governed as well as badly run banks
so really what should we be doing
we should be encouraging a solution in the first place to all the problems i have outlined but we should also never forget that tax competition is a very good thing to have because it encourages governments to take less of our money and to provide services more efficiently for its citizens
