Taxes and tax havens are an issue in England. TUC, the national trade union center in the UK, said its research showed that Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and RBS have over 1,000 subsidiary companies in tax havens dotted across the world. All four banks said that they comply with all relevant tax laws. TUC said tax havens are not necessarily used for tax avoidance.

HSBC said that it did not take any money from the government and added that it “does not seek to avoid taxation and has an excellent relationship with HMRC and the other regulators and authorities under whose guidance and rules we operate.”

Did anyone really expect any of the banks to climb on the Queen’s shoulders for a public admission as tax cheats? The union did say that tax avoidance results in shortfalls made up by everyone else.

After HSBC pointed out for the thousandth time that HSBC did not take any money from the UK or US, HSBC was politely told that the bank benefits from extra liquidity pumped into the banking sector.

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