
Nick Shaxson ■ No, corporate tax avoidance is not ‘legal’ – an update

Recently we published a long blog entitled “No, corporate tax avoidance is not ‘legal’” which was republished on the Financial Times’ Alphaville blog, and got a lot of attention in tax circles.
There was the usual fuming and fulminating about ‘socialists’ under the beds and the usual evidence-free ‘doesn’t know what he’s talking about’ assertions, along with some more interesting points. The best collection of responses was in an article for Tax Notes / Tax Analysts, entitled Claim That Corporate Tax Avoidance Is Illegal Sparks Debate.
There were supportive and less supportive responses in the article, but most of them rested on a simple misunderstanding – which was reflected in the article’s headline itself.
Here’s the key point. The blog carefully did not, and does not, assert, that “corporate tax avoidance is illegal.” It was a more subtle but equally powerful point, that corporate tax avoidance is not ‘legal.’ In other words, it was a pushback against those widespread assertions, in the media and elsewhere, that corporate tax avoidance is all “legal” (or, worse, that it is ‘perfectly legitimate.’)
To put it another way, stuff that is not ‘legal’ isn’t necessarily illegal: it may exist in a grey area of legal uncertainty. And we argued that you’ll never be able to draw bright lines between them.
The original blog is here – scroll down to the bottom to see the new material, and our responses to it.
Related articles

Shareholders to vote on tax transparency as report raises serious questions for Canada’s largest alternative asset manager

Tax Justice Network Arabic podcast #66: الضريبة الموحدة على الشركات والفرص الضائعة

Trop de richesse #50: The Tax Justice Network French podcast

Pacto fiscal pode reduzir desigualdades na América Latina #49: the Tax Justice Network Portuguese podcast

5 ways that Big Tobacco is making you pay more tax

Monopolies and market power: the Tax Justice Network podcast, the Taxcast

EU ambition for DAC8 transparency on crypto is cut short by failure to think outside the OECD box

Nick Shaxson: Leaving the Tax Justice Network

Often overlooked, transparency at the tax administration level is key to holding governments accountable

I am currently involved inm a investigations into the legalization of money laundering in the tax havens of Jersey/Guernsey/Isle of Mann
As a Mackenzie friend of teh court (RCJ) i witnessed proof of banks creating money laundering structures to obtain offshore transfers under court protection
Creating a precedent that make AML moot
I need to contact Nicholas Shaxson and Andrey Knobel Please – Weapons of Mass Injustice please