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Wainwright T, 2011, "Tax doesn’t have to be taxing: London’s ‘onshore’ finance industry and the fiscal spaces of a global crisis" Environment and Planning A 43(6) 1287 – 1304
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Tax doesn’t have to be taxing: London’s ‘onshore’ finance industry and the fiscal spaces of a global crisis

Thomas Wainwright

Received 11 November 2010; in revised form 3 February 2011

Abstract. In this paper I will explore London’s onshore finance industry and how it facilitates corporate tax avoidance programmes. In doing so, I will discuss how financial elites design transactions and corporate activities so as to minimise their exposure to taxation, and how these structures are shaped by the international geographies of taxation. I will investigate an area of London’s financial sector that has previously been neglected by geographers and social scientists. Finally, I turn to illustrate how tax minimisation strategies are implemented, through the example of residential mortgage-backed securitisation, and how tax-minimisation strategies made securitisation a practical tool for financiers. This provides new insights into how taxation elites facilitated the increased financialisation of Britain’s economy and the severity of its exposure to the credit crunch.

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