The Paradise Papers

On Tuesday 14 November the House is scheduled to debate the 'Paradise Papers', a large tranche of material gathered by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, leaked from two offshore service providers and 19 tax havens' company registries. Details of the financial holdings of both wealthy individuals and multinational enterprises has been reported by the BBC, the Guardian, and other media organisations that are part of the consortium, reiterating public concerns as to the scale of tax avoidance and evasion, and the ability of offshore jurisdictions to facilitate these activities. This note gives some background on this issue.