Opinion | Tax evaders can help foot the world’s bill for coronavirus spending

Digital companies that do not need to physically interact with the public have benefited the most from the pandemic

Governments must also apply a higher corporate tax to, say, pharmaceutical companies that are profiting from the crisis

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Digital companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon are champions of tax avoidance. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:30am, 5 Sep 2020Updated: 4:06am, 5 Sep 2020

Remember the “world after the pandemic”? The Covid-19 crisis has caused mourning in hundreds of thousands of families and brought the world’s economies to their knees; but by forcing more than half of humanity to stop, it has also forced us to think, to dream, of a fairer, more egalitarian, greener world.

In that world, we would recognise the importance of quality public services, having seen health workers fighting heroically against the virus and teachers trying to keep in contact with their students, despite lockdowns and lack of resources. But it is the companies that have been pleading for more state interventions recently.

Cynicism about big business prevails. Of course, the big brands did not hesitate to advertise timely operations of “solidarity” – by donating masks and gel, for example. But all over the world, many of them plan on paying out billions in dividends, even after benefiting from state handouts.

In France, for example, half the CAC 40 index – representing the 40 top companies by market capitalisation – still decided to pay out between €35 billion (US$41.4 billion) and €41 billion in dividends, despite receiving state aid in the form of the short-time work scheme, as reported by Oxfam France.

The soaring dividends are feeding the billionaires, though the European ones are not the champions of indecency. In the United States, the assets of 600 billionaires grew by a good US$434 billion, or 15 per cent, during the first two months of lockdown, according to an analysis of Forbes data. The fortunes of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg alone increased by nearly US$60 billion.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the US House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law in Washington on July 29. Photo: Reuters

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