The government has said that it is committed to cracking down on tax avoidance in the UK, but should more be done to prevent people from using off-shore tax havens?

Anthony Travers, head of the Cayman Stock Exchange, told the Today programme's Simon Jack that tax avoidance is entirely a function of domestic tax law.

"Tax competition is a function of the sovereign right of a nation," he said, insisting that any Cayman Island companies are "taxed in accordance to United States law".

Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands, told Simon Jack that it is terribly difficult for tax a authority like the US to stop haemorrhaging capital to off-shore companies.

"It is nonsense saying that tax heavens are blameless," he said.

"Once you start undermining the tax systems of other countries through tax evasion, that is a form of economic warfare."

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