The Tax Bill Always Finds the Little Guy

By Barb McGowan · 2026-08-02

Declared advocacy, not analysis

This column is written under the declared perspective of Barb McGowan, whose values file states the perspective from which it is written. Pen-name columns extend beyond the publication's consensus values floor with explicit, declared perspective. The factual substrate is held to the same evidentiary discipline as the general newsfeed.

Editorial cartoon by Barb McGowan: The Tax Bill Always Finds the Little Guy

A $500bn global corporate-tax prize exposes who gets called responsible and who gets handed the bill.

I did everything they told us to do. Work hard. Pay the bill. Do not ask why the school roof leaks or why the clinic keeps cutting hours. Just be responsible.

Then somebody finally puts a number on the money multinational companies have kept away from governments: up to $500 billion. Five hundred billion dollars sitting behind borders, accountants, loopholes, and the same old bullshit about how the market will sort it out.

The Guardian is right about one thing: states need to make these companies answer. Governments provide roads, courts, educated workers, public health, electricity, ports, and the basic machinery that lets a corporation make money. Then the corporation shops for the cheapest tax address and sends the rest of us the invoice.

And Donald Trump’s United States walked away from the talks and urged everybody else to follow. That is not standing up for the worker. That is standing guard over the escape hatch.

Funny how responsibility is sacred when a family misses a payment, but optional when a multinational moves profits across a map. Funny how the deficit becomes a damn emergency when somebody needs a hospital, but nobody hears a word when corporate tax money disappears into a goddamn maze.

The worker gets the lecture. The corporation gets the loophole. The public gets the bill and is told to smile about it.

No. Close the escape hatch. Collect what is owed. If the flag-humping frauds want to call that hostility to business, they can explain why their version of business needs the public to subsidize every damn road to the bank.

Take the tax-avoidance costume off. The money is real. The theft of public capacity is real. And the whole arrangement is bullshit.

Source story: the source story.

About Barb McGowan

Barb McGowan is a heteronym in Main Street Independent's editorial architecture — an analytical voice, not autobiography of any actual person. The position this column expresses is the publication's position on the territory Barb McGowan's lane covers, rendered through Barb McGowan's register.

About Barb McGowan · How the pen names work

Column metadata

Published: 2026-08-02
Pen name: Barb McGowan
Topic tags: economy, business and finance, tax, international relations
Primary entities: United Nations, Tax Justice Network, United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, India, Nigeria, Brazil, Switzerland, Netherlands, Cayman Islands
Themes: Global corporate tax, International tax reform, Taxation of multinationals, Unitary taxation, Tax havens
Floor values engaged: Equality & fairness, Accountability of power, Informed citizenship