Some estimates suggest that South Africa has lost nearly $100-billion to tax avoidance schemes in the past 30 years.
The Mail & Guardian and Yournalism, a Netherlands-based investigative journalism outlet, with the help of Connecting Continents, are collaborating to sniff out South Africa’s biggest corporate tax dodgers. And we need your help.
Here’s why: More money has left Africa illegally than the continent has received in the past 50 years. The main culprits are private companies and we want to find out who they are.
Tax avoidance, profit-shifting and practices such as trade misinvoicing or trade mispricing are costing South Africa dearly. Some estimates suggest that in the past 30 years, South Africa has lost nearly $100-billion to tax avoidance schemes.
This is money that belongs in our tax base. It can be used to build schools, homes and roads, and deliver services to millions of impoverished people. Instead, this money is often moved to offshore locations, tax havens, so that multinational companies can increase their profits without having to pay their fair share of tax.
Some say Africa would no longer need development aid if companies paid their share of taxes in their host countries.
We want to find out who these companies are and where they are hiding their money – money that rightfully belongs in South Africa.
But investigations like this are huge and cost a lot to conduct. They cross borders and require many hands and brains to unpick the complex webs that are corporate financing structures.
We want to dig as far as we can, to make sure we cover as many companies as possible and expose those who are in the wrong. For this investigation to be thorough, we need help from our readers in the form of donations to our crowdfunding campaign.
If you’d like to donate some of your hard-earned cash to help us put the heat on the private sector, here’s how:
Read our crowdfunding proposal.
Donate directly to our cause by clicking on the button below.
