Ei-iE

Education International is launching its Resource Guide on Tax Justice to mark World Public Services Day and to support education unions in their efforts to achieve global tax justice.

This online resource guide is designed to help Education International (EI) affiliates be better informed about what advancements are being made by the tax justice movement, and what they can do in their own countries to ensure adequate funding of public services.

Around the world, tax havens, tax avoidance and corruption of multinational corporations are depriving governments every year of hundreds of billions of dollars desperately needed to pay for schools, materials and teachers. With the looming Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the US and Europe threatening the privatisation of public services, it is crucial that the public know where their tax dollars are being spent.

“Closing loopholes in international tax legislation will require changing attitudes, and calls for strong political will,” says EI President Susan Hopgood. “The widespread acceptance of tax avoidance as a legitimate goal of large corporations must change. Unless this appalling and unjustified tax evasion is stopped, quality public education and other services will continue to be put at risk by cuts in public spending.”

By removing tax havens, preventing harmful tax incentives, and by implementing progressive tax systems, governments can tap the resources needed to finance equitable quality education systems that are truly accessible to all.

The Global Campaign for Education,a civil society movement working to end the global education crisis, revealed that in Tanzania alone the amount of money lost to tax dodging by big corporations could have paid for the training of all untrained primary school teachers, in addition to the 70,000 more teachers needed at the primary level in the country. It could also have funded the building of new classrooms and ensuring that every primary school-aged child has a reading and mathematics textbook.

In addition to the TTIP, the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) Financial Services Annex - currently negotiated and covering 50 countries and 68.2% of world trade in services - will further deregulate and liberalise financial services, impacting tax systems at many levels, as well as limiting the provision of public services, directly affecting education.

Rosa Pavanelli, the General Secretary of Public Services International (PSI), the global trade union federation dedicated to promoting quality public services worldwide, stated that “Tax justice is about social justice and fighting inequality. Tax justice is about redistributing wealth by funding the vital public services such as health and education that help end poverty and inequality. Reforming national, regional and international tax systems and removing counter-productive tax incentives will lead to substantially increased budgets for countries to finance the post-2015 agenda and pay for improved public services including education, healthcare, clean water and sanitation, energy, housing, transportation, and development initiatives.”

Education International believes it is time for international action to reform national, regional and international tax systems to ensure that multinational corporations pay their fair share of tax so that governments have the resources needed to fund quality public services, including quality education. The Resource Guide to Tax Justice will put the power back in the public’s hands.

The Resource Guide on Tax Justice can be downloaded here