Blowing the whistle on tax dodgers benefits all

HARD TO believe though it may be, I actually get paid for this.

Yes, being editor of the Wanganui Chronicle - while reward in itself - comes with a modest stipend.

The remuneration looks even more modest when the taxman has carved off about 30 per cent, and while I might grizzle about that, I have to accept it is my contribution to schools that educate our kids; hospitals that care for the sick; roads that I can drive along ... and even the odd flag referendum.

So I take it rather personally when others, considerably better off than me, avoid paying those same taxes.

It was bad enough to learn of the multi-national corporations and banks shuffling money offshore to hide the profits they made in New Zealand and dodge paying taxes here.

Now we have the "Panama Papers" revealing worldwide the science of tax avoidance has become an art form, with New Zealand and its thousand-plus trusts and shell companies a significant part of the canvas.

The biggest data leak in history - 11.5 million records from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca - shows world leaders, despots, mafia bosses and drug dealers all avoiding paying tax. Don't their kids go to school? Don't they ever get sick? Don't they drive on roads? Don't they have flag referendums?

We who do our duty and fork out our dues can take a slither of satisfaction from this exposure.

And for it, we should acknowledge one "leaker" who sought no financial gain but wanted to "make these crimes public"; and 370 journalists from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists spread over more than 80 countries who worked the material for a year and managed to break the news simultaneously across more than 100 news organisations.

The Sydney Morning Herald commented: "Readers should not expect the Panama Papers to stop tax havens, just as last week's revelations ... about Australian involvement in foreign bribery in the oil market will not stop those practices.

"But the more whistleblowers and investigative journalists shine a light on secretive misdeeds, the riskier such activities become - and everyone benefits."