Thursday, May 31, 2012
Christine Lagarde (photo: Reuters)
A storm of controversy has surrounded the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for accusing people in Greece of not paying their taxes, while she’s avoided taxation on her own lucrative salary.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde said in an interview last week that Greeks were tax dodgers and not doing enough to restore their country on sound fiscal footing.
Lagarde told The Guardian that Greeks “are trying to escape tax all the time.”
Following the publication of her remarks, the British newspaper reported that Lagarde pays no taxes on her yearly compensation of more than $550,000. As head of the IMF, she is not required to do so, just as employees of the United Nations are similarly exempt.
Lagarde took over the IMF’s leadership last year after its previous managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, resigned after being accused of sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid. Those charges were subsequently dropped.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
Christine Lagarde, Scourge of Tax Evaders, Pays No Tax (by Kim Willsher, The Guardian)
It's Payback Time: Don't Expect Sympathy – Lagarde To Greeks (by Larry Elliott and Decca Aitkenhead, The Guardian)
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