The UK Prime Minister has received high praise from an unlikely source: one of Iceland’s Progressive MPs.
RÚV reports that Progressive MP Vigdís Hauksdóttir – who is also chairperson of the parliamentary Budget Committee – praised UK Prime Minister David Cameron for agreeing to release his tax returns for scrutiny in the wake of the Panama Papers leak that has implicated numerous world leaders, including Iceland’s former Prime Minister, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson.
Icelandic tax authorities estimate that some 83 billion ISK is missing from tax revenue that should be going into the treasury. Vigdís believes that legislative changes may be needed to staunch the bleeding of funds from the country.
Vigdís not only praised Cameron as “setting a good example” by releasing his tax returns; she also considers it “significant” that the British government wants to take additional steps to increase punishments for British companies who hide their profits in offshore accounts, pointing out that both the British Virgin Islands and the island of Jersey are tax shelters and operate under the auspices of the British crown.
Sigmundur has said that all of his and his wife’s offshore revenue has been reported to tax authorities, but they have as yet not offered an explanation on how they did so. He said that he would be willing to release his tax returns on the condition that leaders of other Icelandic political parties do the same.
More protests calling for the dissolution of parliament and immediate elections are scheduled to be ongoing throughout the week.
For more on this continuing story, follow our Panama Papers tag on Grapevine.is/news.
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