Nigeria loses $492 billion annually to multinational corporations and wealthy individuals exploiting tax havens to underpay taxes, according to the latest report by the Tax Justice Network.
The Tax Justice Network’s 2024 State of Tax Justice report measures annual tax losses incurred by countries due to global tax abuses.The report shows that Nigeria loses $383.9 million every year because companies don’t pay enough tax, which is a problem with how global corporate taxes work.
Around the world, they report an annual tax loss of $492 billion due to tax evasion and avoidance schemes. About two-thirds of this, or $347.6 billion, is from multinational companies moving their profits to other countries to avoid taxes. The remaining, $144.8 billion, is from wealthy people hiding assets in offshore accounts.
The $492 billion in worldwide tax losses represents the total cost of corporate tax avoidance and unreported personal wealth kept in offshore accounts. The report highlights that tax avoidance by multinational companies is the biggest part of these losses. It estimates that these corporations, which make up a third of the global economy, half of all world exports, and nearly a quarter of global jobs, moved $1.42 trillion in profits to tax havens in 2024. This action led to governments around the world losing $348 billion in tax revenue.
The report names eight wealthy countries as the most significant enablers of global tax abuse. These countries are Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Together, these countries, which make up just 8% of the world’s people, are behind 43% of global tax losses. Notably, these countries recently opposed a United Nations tax agreement meant to stop tax loopholes.
