
2020-11-26
LILONGWE - Taxation treaties that Malawi signed with other countries over the last fifty years are costing the country hundreds of millions of dollars, since they have opened up opportunities for multinational corporations to reduce their tax liability through tax avoidance.
Since 2019, he multinational mobile company Airtel has been fighting efforts from the Malawi Revenue Authority to enforce the collection of non-resident tax, in an emerging court case that may have be exposed the company’s tax avoidance ploys.
This investigation exposes in detail how the company prior to its forced listing on the local bourse made various transactions within its group (most notably to its parent company in the Netherlands), which both local and international experts posit that they point to typical tax avoidance techniques in use the world over.
The Reserve Bank of Malawi suspects that Malawi has lost $395 million (about 240 billion Malawian kwacha) through unauthorised externalisation of foreign exchange by some multinationals in the country.

Top image by Troy Squillaci from Pexels
Mentor
Supported
€3,700 granted on 23/07/2020ID
MT/2020/136Grant
Tags
ONLINE
- Multinational mobile phone firm stashes $22m in tax haven from Malawi - The Centre for Investigative Journalism Malawi, 21/11/2020
- Multinational mobile phone firm stashes $22m in tax haven from Malawi - MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism (Lesotho), 23/11/2020
- Multinational mobile phone firm stashes $22m in tax haven from Malawi - Centro de Journalismo Investigativo (CJI Mozambique), 23/11/2020
- Multinational mobile phone firm stashes US$22m in tax haven from Malawi - The Maravi Post (Malawi), 25/11/2020
- Multinational mobile phone firm stashes $22m in tax haven from Malawi - Makanday (Zambia), 27/11/2020
need resources for your own investigative story?
Journalismfund Europe's flexible grants programmes enable journalists to produce relevant public interest stories with a European mind-set from international, national, and regional perspectives.
support independent cross-border investigative journalism
We rely on your support to continue the work that we do. Make a gift of any amount today.