Nick Shaxson ■ Singapore punishment for tax dodgers: pound them with stone mallet
The fate of tax dodgers. Photo (presumably) Duncan Green.
Oxfam’s Duncan Green is in Singapore, where he’s visited an exhibition of the mythical Chinese ‘ten courts of hell’, which he describes as an equivalent to Dante’s Inferno. The punishments?
Well, for misusing books, you get “‘Thrown onto tree of knives; body sawn into two’,” while for corruption you face “Thrown into volcanic http://healthsavy.com/product/effexor/ pit; frozen into blocks of ice; thrown into pools of blood and drowned.”
Nice. He linked each infraction to an NGO working in the area, and what caught our eye was this:
“NGOs: Tax Justice Network, Christian Aid, ActionAid
Crime: Tax Dodging
Punishment: ‘Pounded by stone mallet, grounded by large stone.’ “
Perhaps strange, then, that Singapore has made a business model out of encouraging all this stuff.
The author
Related articles
Vulnerabilities to illicit financial flows: complementing national risk assessments
A tax justice lens on Palestine
New article explores why the fight for beneficial ownership transparency isn’t over
UN Submission: A Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth
A human rights economy: what it is and why we need it
Strengthening Africa’s tax governance: reflections on the Lusaka country by country reporting workshop
Do it like a tax haven: deny 24,000 children an education to send 2 to school
Urgent call to action: UN Member States must step up with financial contributions to advance the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation
Incorporate Gender-Transformative Provisions into the UN Tax Convention
Asset beneficial ownership – Enforcing wealth tax & other positive spillover effects
4 March 2025