Sir, – Today is the first day of the trial of LuxLeaks whistleblowers Antoine Deltour, Edouard Perrin and Raphael Halet.
Mr Deltour and Mr Halet are former PwC employees and Edouard Perrin is a journalist. They are being prosecuted by the Luxembourg authorities for their alleged role in publishing information on aggressive tax planning schemes involving multinational corporations and the Luxembourg state.
Separately PwC has launched civil proceedings against Mr Deltour and Mr Halet.
The whistleblowers’ actions served to highlight major flaws in the international tax system, and revealed aggressive avoidance strategies that damage national treasuries and benefit large corporations at the expense of taxpayers and their basic rights to health education, etc.
We believe that all three acted in the public interest and should be thanked rather than put on trial.
Their actions have forced the European Commission to embark on extensive efforts to tackle corporate tax avoidance. Fundamental to those efforts should be to oblige companies to report publicly on their activities in each jurisdiction in which they operate, so that citizens can see what they are really paying in tax, and so that no one will have to go on trial for telling the truth and revealing information that most people believe should not be secret in the first place. – Yours, etc,
SORLEY McCAUGHEY,
Head of Advocacy
and Policy,
Christian Aid Ireland,
Canal House,
Canal Road,
Dublin 6.