The Tax Free Tour - VPRO documentary - 2013

"Where do multinationals pay taxes and how much?" Gaining insight from international tax experts, Backlight takes a look at tax havens, the people who live there and the routes along which tax is avoided globally. Those routes go by resounding names like 'Cayman Special', 'Double Irish', and 'Dutch Sandwich'.

A financial world operates in the shadows surrounded by a high level of secrecy. A place where sizeable capital streams travel the world at the speed of light and avoid paying tax. The Tax Free Tour is an economic thriller mapping the systemic risk for governments and citizens alike. Is this the price we have to pay for globalised capitalism? At the same time, the free online game "Taxodus" by Femke Herregraven is launched. In the game, the player can select the profile of a multinational and look for the global route to pay as little tax as possible.

Originally broadcasted by VPRO in 2013.
© VPRO Backlight March 2013

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Credits:
Director: Marije Meerman
Research: William de Bruijn
Camera: Jean Counet
Editing: Bart van den Broek
Sound: Tim van Peppen, Benny Jansen, Joris van Ballegoijen
Producer: Marie Schutgens
animation: Bitcaves & Motoko
English, French and Spanish subtitles: Ericsson.
French and Spanish subtitles are co-funded by European Union.

[vprodocumentary]

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[marwanyounes]

Corporate social responsibility is the biggest joke

[FilipCordas]

"You don't pay taxes - they take taxes." - Chris Rock

[Derbauer]

eye opening documentary, thank you for teaching your viewers what should be taught in public schools as part of real education of how the world works, or rather how corrupt and shameless it is.

[mayankagrawal]

one of the best documentaries i have watched till now

[scorpina]

This corporate rip off and swindle practice is something I have always known was happening. And after returning to the Netherlands after a 25 year absence, I was astounded at the blindness of the people there. Yes, sadly it is true that you and me and all the poor in this world are paying taxes while the corporate rich are getting away with paying close to nothing! Good work VPRO! The only broadcaster who dares to go there. No place is the world is transparant. Corruption is the norm!

[MrSirDrew]

"Where do multinationals pay taxes and how much?" Gaining insight from international tax experts, Backlight takes a look at tax havens, the people who live there and the routes along which tax is avoided globally.
Those routes go by resounding names like 'Cayman Special', 'Double Irish', and 'Dutch Sandwich'.
Surprisingly, the concentration of wealth is much worse than stated in the film explaining 10 million people are at the top 1%, but in 2012 three mathematicians from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology when researching the corporate connections around the world, came to the conclusion that a mere few hundred individuals control 80% of the world’s output and assets, only 737 in fact.

[venus]

im surprised it has got only this amount of views

[marcosmota]

I am so late to learning about this...it's depressing. Thank you for the hard work that you do.

[HotKarlMalone]

This "race to the bottom" of taxes is alive and well not only in developing countries but within the US as states throw billions each year in incentives at businesses to relocate (or in sports, to keep teams from leaving) without much study of real economic benefits. If a business is looking for sweetheart tax deals, no surprise they look for low cost labor (often requiring public assistance) that enriches business owners to the detriment of their communities. We all pay, just indirectly.

[mandydone]

After i watched this, I'm feeling hopeless

[BarthelemyLesaint]

That's one HELL of a documentary !

[diketsondlovu]

15 years of loss and 1, 5 million in tax this guys are gangster lol...we should learn from them.

[bergweg]

48:18 nice, steal the money and then loan it back (with interest) and pretend you're a savior.

[SoundofGugu]

27:28 all you need to know is right here

[granthogan]

I love this William Brittain-Catlin bloke in this. He is so obviously just come back from the pub, that the film have supplied him with a coffee, yet they still value his opinion. imagine him sober.

[bryngriffith]

and the tax man chase the little man for peanuts all day is very wrong in this world

[themaddestmax]

Great documentary. It helps to join up the dots between the who where how and why of many of worlds economic woes. Although, if you are easily depressed or a devout neoliberal capitalist, it will upset you

[pt]

"when you look at the whole thing, it fails" sorry there is a basic flaw in this argument at around 40:10. Higher overall taxation rate (that includes domestic and off shore) will make the prices of all products of mentioned companies even higher anywhere they sell them. The Government will tend to use the money from the higher taxation less efficiently by around 40% than private capital does. Also, it is not true that areas that serve as tax heavens suffer exploitation (Bahamas, Panama, Dubai, Amsterdam Monaco ect are some examples. In Africa, Asia many countries that have allowed influx of foreign investors have seen spectacular growth of infrastructure and improvement of living condition of inhabitants.

[ArtofFreeSpeech]

I could go on for quite awhile about the entire subject, as, likely, could everyone regarding how they feel.  I'm not going to take that approach.  What I would like to do is call to attention the end portion of the video, right around the 50:15 mark through to about 51:15 (give or take from both).  We've pretty much all heard the maxim "a picture tells 1000 words" and I would say, as a man who had Dr. Paul Ekman as my mentor and Ph.D. advisor, what is said in the faces and by the bodies of Matt Brittin, Andrew Cecil, and Troy Alstead in the, oh 20 seconds or so where they speak, well, were I allowed to use the faces in the audience, I could likely write an entire book on what's ACTUALLY said by each man, because only one of the three men ACTUALLY believes what he said, and if you enjoy study of non-verbal communication (which is generally given as 90% of all communication, but in this case is probably more like 98% or something), I would recommend the minute where they're asked about a corporation's responsibilities be one you study.

What I like about this minute especially is you are seeing each person say the same thing, while none of the them agree with one another! LOL!  If you take the faces of the audience into account, my heavens, you could literally do an entire 50-80 page Master's thesis on the body language communicated in that one minute.  If anyone reads this far, and is curious about what I'm seeing (and note, I watch it in short bursts of less than a second), let me know, and we can chat about it. I'll give just this little bit:  Troy Alstead has the face of a 5 year old when caught doing something he KNOWS is wrong, but doesn't believe one of his two answers for a second.  Andrew Cecil has a deep contempt of being called out on it, and believes neither of his answers. Matt Brittin, surprisingly, though not agreeing completely with what he says, holds great contempt for Andrew Cecil, or at least what he's saying (particularly in 5:08, where Cecil makes just the quickest flash of shame, but then lies his ass off by 5:10).  The most surprising part about Brittin is he is the most confident he is the least guilty among the 3, and I'm inclined to believe him.  Google, by doing their business over the internet, and only over the internet (speaking solely of the search engine, Chrome, and now YouTube, offering free products like Google Chrome and YouTube), CAN speak with confidence because they make the vast amount of their money off of advertising, and not off of the consumer, hence the FAR reduced guilt, AND the contempt of Apple.

That's probably close to 1000 words, and it's been based on telling next to nothing, other than things the very intuitive person already knows, but someone who relies purely on what they hear, might actually believe.  Enjoy (and if you want to see more contempt, look at the face of the white haired man when Cecil answers).