Accounting for poverty

Tax provides the long term financial platform for sustainable development and is the lifeblood of state services.Admassu Yilma Tadesse, Vice President, Development Bank of Southern Africa.

Without raising more taxes, developing countries will remain dependent on aid and trapped in the cycle of poverty.

Graph showing tax at a % of GDP for various countries
If all developing countries could raise just 15 per cent of national income through tax, they could raise an extra £100 billion every year.  This would be more than all international aid combined and more than enough to meet the Millennium Development Goals on hunger, HIV and AIDS and education.How can poor countries raise more revenue? Countries can increase their tax revenue by:  

  • improving systems to collect tax
  • cracking down on tax dodging by multinational companies

 

How can I help?
There are some really simple solutions that will help. Join ActionAid’s tax campaign, and make tax justice a reality.

photo : ©G.M.B. Akash/Panos/ActionAid.

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Why tax matters: real lives

“I am appealing to the companies to pay their taxes so that the government can provide our schools and light and water, because we are the human resources of the future.”

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