Global tax avoidance huge problem: Obama on Panama Papers

April 06, 2016 03:31

In his first reaction to the leaked 'Panama Papers' that revealed names of thousands of world leaders and celebrities who have stashed money in tax havens, President Barack Obama on Tuesday said that global tax avoidance may be running into trillions of dollars worldwide.

"There is no doubt that the problem of global tax avoidance, generally, is a huge problem," Obama said adding the issue has been brought up in G7 and G20 meetings.

"There has been some progress made in coordinating between tax authorities of different countries so that we can make sure that we're catching some of the most egregious examples," he said.

"But as I said before, one of the big problems that we have is that a lot of this stuff is not illegal. Unless the United States and other countries lead by example in closing some of these loopholes and provisions, then in many cases you can trace what's taking place, but you can't stop it.

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