Obama "screws up" or does the right thing?

[Jan Klimkowski]

Obama is at least making the right noises...

Unlike supposed socialist, Gordon Brown [my emphasis]:

Gordon Brown is hoping to secure an international agreement to help clamp down on tax avoiders, it emerged today.

The prime minister said at Commons question time that the outcome of a court case in the US could lead to more information sharing on the strategies being deployed by corporations to cut their tax bills.

Brown made his comments after he was challenged by Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, about the findings of a Guardian investigation into the scale of the tax gap, the amount of money being lost to the exchequer by companies using complex strategies to cut their tax liabilities.

Clegg said that British firms were using loopholes to avoid paying £14bn in corporation tax. Accusing Brown of having "one rule for fat cats and another rule for everyone else", Clegg asked why Brown was not "getting tough" on tax avoidance. "Instead of going on about British jobs for British workers, isn't it time to go on about British taxes for British companies?" Clegg asked.

Brown said that it was "possible to get an international agreement for the exchange of information in relation to tax cases" but that the government was first awaiting the outcome of US court proceedings relating to a Swiss tax avoidance case.

The prime minister went on: "That would be the way that we could move forward our proposals, that we could have both the exchange of information on tax and clamp down on these tax evaders."

But Clegg said that the prime minister was "living in denial" on the issue.

"He is the one who created a system which let big companies run circles around the Treasury, peers in the other place [the House of Lords] not pay their full taxes in this country, and let City bosses pay less in tax on their capital gains than cleaners do on their wages," Clegg said.

The billions lost by Brown could be used to fund "big, permanent tax cuts" to British families, he added.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/...-avoidance