Nearly all FTSE 100 companies use tax havens
to avoid domestic corporate taxes, according to UK charity
ActionAid.

An ActionAid report, ‘Addicted to tax
havens’, revealed that a quarter of the 34,216 subsidiary
companies, joint ventures and associates set up by FTSE 100
multinationals are located in tax havens. The US state of Delaware
is home to the most FTSE 100 companies with nearly 2,500.
Remarkably, more than two-thirds of the companies registered in the
US state of Delaware, which has a surface area of 2,000 sq
miles.

There are more than 600 entities linked to
FTSE 100 companies in Jersey, 400 in the Cayman Islands and 300 in
Luxembourg.

The biggest tax haven user is the advertising
company WPP, which has 611 tax haven companies.

However it is the banking sector, in
particular HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Group and RBS, that are the
biggest users of tax havens, the report said. The four largest
banks have 1,649 tax haven companies between them.

Oil and mining companies also heavily use tax
havens. BP and Shell have almost 1,000 tax haven companies between
them, including more than 100 in the Caribbean.

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The only FTSE100 companies that do not use tax
havens are Fresnillo and Hargreaves Landsdown.

ActionAid tax justice expert Chris Jordan said
the use of tax havens by Britain’s biggest companies raises serious
questions they need to answer.

“Tax havens have a damaging impact on the UK
exchequer, the stability of the international financial system, and
vitally on the ability of developing countries to raise tax
revenues which would lift them out of poverty and make them less
dependent on aid,” Jordan said.

ActionAid has called on the government to
urgently rethink its current proposals to relax UK anti-tax haven
rules.