INDUSTRIAL-SCALE tax-dodging by the super-rich and big corporations is one of those galling injustices that feels so everyday that it’s hard to stay outraged.

This week, we learnt that governments around the world lost half a trillion dollars to tax-dodging.

Starbucks, whose new CEO commutes to work by private jet, paid just £7 million on its £548m of UK sales. Meanwhile, global inequality is skyrocketing.

Yet, with little fanfare, a groundbreaking new tax agreement is being hashed out within the United Nations. The UN Tax Convention is a bold initiative to build a fairer tax system through co-ordinated internal action.   

Tax-dodging is a global problem that demands a global solution. The UN Tax Convention offers this in the form of a legally binding treaty, negotiated democratically within the United Nations.

At a minimum, it could introduce crucial financial transparency measures, making it much harder for corporations and the super-rich to shirk their tax obligations.

But it has the potential to go much further. Protocols on taxing high-net-worth individuals and polluting industries are under discussion — which could pave the way to properly taxing the super-rich and climate-wrecking corporations.  

The idea may seem abstract, but it has direct implications for the lives of people worldwide.

In Britain, public services are held together with duct tape after a decade and a half of ideologically driven cuts. From the NHS to schools, from social housing to the transition to greener energy, Britain’s public sector is desperate for investment.

Yet the new government’s first budget fell short. Citing a “black hole” in the public finances, the Chancellor shied away from the massive investment required. Imagine the transformative impact the billions currently hidden away in tax havens by the super-rich and big corporations could have if they were instead invested in our communities.

Internationally, the stakes are even higher. As the UN Climate Summit Cop29 climate negotiations have been unfolding in Azerbaijan, a key stumbling block is climate finance — the money that wealthier global North countries must provide to the global South to address the climate crisis.  

The global North, which bears the greatest responsibility for global heating — through the most historic emissions — owes the global South approximately $5/£4 trillion annually in climate finance. Yet, predictably, wealthy global North countries are reluctant to meet this obligation. Recovering funds lost to tax dodging could provide a crucial source of climate finance.

Britain has a well-earned reputation as a hub for dirty money. After World War II, it encouraged its overseas territories to become offshore tax havens as a short-term economic fix. This decision has had toxic, long-lasting consequences.  

Today, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, all British Overseas Territories, are the world’s top three tax havens, with Jersey in eighth place. Collectively, Britain and its territories are responsible for a third of global corporate tax dodging.

Meanwhile, London remains a global centre for the lawyers, PR firms and creative accountants who enable the super-rich to hide their wealth and launder their reputations.

Backing the UN Tax Convention could help repair Britain tarnished image and make amends for its role in perpetuating global tax injustices.

In a rare glimmer of hope, the UN Tax Convention is gaining momentum.  

When Nigeria proposed it at last year’s UN general assembly, there was scepticism from global North countries including Britain, US, Japan, South Korea and the EU states.

These countries viewed the UN Tax Convention as a challenge to their influence, as it is likely to replace the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which is dominated by global North countries, as the de facto body for international tax policy.

But in the year since, support for the UN Tax Convention has grown. The EU dropped its opposition, leaving Britain increasingly looking increasingly isolated.

When countries again voted on the issue this summer, Britain was one of just eight opposing it.  

Domestically, the UN Tax Convention has been endorsed by dozens of NGOs and trade unions.  

The UN Tax Convention is becoming a reality. If it is successful, it could have a transformative impact on the global economy. The new British government must adopt a new position and back the UN Tax Convention, or be left behind.