Tax Justice Focus – THE RESEARCH EDITION
From the Editors
July 18th, 2008
The Research Edition – click here Continue reading “2008 – The Research edition”
Tax Justice Focus – THE RESEARCH EDITION
From the Editors
July 18th, 2008
The Research Edition – click here Continue reading “2008 – The Research edition”
Tax Justice Focus, 1st Quarter 2008, Vol. 4, Number 1 – THE DOHA EDITION
From the Editors
April 7th, 2008
The Doha Edition – click here
The first quarter 2008 edition of Tax Justice Focus (TJF) is a special edition focusing on the preparations for the United Nations meeting on Finance for Development in Doha, Qatar, from November 29-December 2, 2008. It is edited by Nicholas Shaxson and John Christensen. Continue reading “2008 – The Doha edition”
Tax Justice Focus, Fourth Quarter 2007, Vol. 3, Number 4 – THE ISLANDS EDITION
From the Editors
January 14th, 2008
The Islands Edition – click here
The fourth quarter 2007 edition of Tax Justice Focus (TJF) is a special edition on islands, edited by Nicholas Shaxson and John Christensen. Continue reading “2007 – The Islands edition”
Tax Justice Focus, Third Quarter 2007, Vol. 3, Number 3 – THE FRENCH EDITION
From the Editor
October 5th, 2007
The French Edition – click here to see it In English and En Français
The third quarter 2007 edition of Tax Justice Focus (TJF) is a special edition on accountability, edited by Jean Meckaert, and co-edited by Nicholas Shaxson and John Christensen. Continue reading “2007 – The French edition”
Tax Justice Focus, Second Quarter 2007, Vol. 3, Issue 2 – ACCOUNTABILITY
From the Editor
The Accountability Issue – click here
The second quarter 2007 edition of Tax Justice Focus (TJF) is a special edition on accountability, co-edited by Nicholas Shaxson and John Christensen.
A central theme of this issue is that taxation helps foster political accountability – and that this outcome has been all but forgotten, especially in poor countries. Continue reading “2007 – Accountability”
From Bloomberg:
“The largest U.S.-based companies added $206 billion to their stockpiles of offshore profits last year, parking earnings in low-tax countries until Congress gives them a reason not to. Continue reading “US multinationals’ offshore cash piles grow $206bn”
Tax Justice Focus, Volume 3, Number 1: INEQUALITY
From the Editor
The Inequality Issue (Click here)
The first quarter 2007 edition of Tax Justice Focus is a special edition on inequality.
In the editorial, “Trickling Down, or Gushing Up?”, we look at economic theories that inequality per se does not matter; boosting the rich will create benefits that trickle down to the poor. TJF points out that while older critiques of this ’trickle-down economics’ –that it has failed– are perfectily valid, one part of the argument has been overlooked: tax haven activities actively turn trickle-down economics upside down, by provoking massive capital flows out of poorer countries into richer ones.
In ’Gender and Taxation Systems’ Caren Grown and Imraan Valodia highlight the lack of a gender perspective in current debates about taxation, and the ways that tax policies can discriminate against women.
Other key articles include:
Anna Thomas on Christian Aid’s report A Rich Seam, which explores how tax incentives given to companies seeking access to minerals in several developing countries have led to a remarkable erosion of revenue, far outweighing any extra investment that such incentives are supposed to have attracted.
Sheila Killian, lecturer in accounting and finance at the University of Limerick, on how Ireland is embarking on a second round of tax competition, now that high wages and prices have made that country an expensive place to do business in. She finds that this second round of tax competition has sinister, unforeseen implications for developing countries.
Fausto Hernández-Trillo arguing that Mexico’s tax policies scarcely contribute to reducing high and persistent levels of inequality and poverty. Mexico’s experience brings out an important point: fiscal policy should be considered as a whole, and not just from the tax revenue side.
This edition also covers the launch of Tax Justice Network for Africa and plans for Youth TJN; it provides feedback from the 2007 Tax Justice Council; it covers TJN’s role in advising the Leading Group of Countries on Solidarity Levies; and reviews a new book–A Game As Old As Empire–which contains chapters by several TJN members.
The pdf file of this edition, which has been designed with a screen layout suitable for printing on standard A4 paper, can be downloaded here: TJF Vol.3,No.1
The next edition will feature articles around the theme of accountability.
For older editions, click here
Wall Street banks trade perhaps half of their derivatives activities through foreign banks. For them, foreign jurisdictions are an obvious escape route from U.S. financial regulations. Last June, Marcus Stanley of Americans for Financial Reform wrote: Continue reading “Letter on derivatives: stop the offshore race to the bottom”
Global Witness, the indefatigable investigators of corruption, tax havens and general monkey business, have been awarded two prestigious awards. They note: Continue reading “Global Witness wins TED prize; Skoll awards”
Bitcoin: promotional image
We have for many years been describing Delaware as an offshore secrecy jurisdiction (or tax haven) inside the United States. It is not so much tax, as secrecy and laissez-faire corporate governance (and ugly related matters) that are the tiny state’s core offerings, along with all that judicial experience that comes with being the ask-no-questions incorporation capital of the United States. Read more about Delaware and the U.S. as secrecy jurisdictions, here. Continue reading “Bitcoin scandal: the role of Delaware secrecy”
Following our widely read analysis on Russia, Ukraine, the City of London, and national security – here’s another must-read article in the New York Times from the same author, Ben Judah, who wrote the original one we cited.
Continue reading “London spin machine tries to rebut NYT “City betrays US” thesis”
In a welcome step, the International Monetary Fund has announced it will be researching the consequences of existing and proposed changes to corporation tax regimes for lower income “source” countries. Continue reading “IMF launches consultation on tax ‘spillover’”
We have written at length about the European Union Savings Tax Directive (EUSD), a scheme involving 43 European countries and other participating jurisdictions to tackle tax evasion by exchanging appropriate information automatically with each other. Continue reading “European Union Savings Tax Directive Amendments – coming very soon?”
From the Exposed Campaign: a powerful two-minute video, which speaks for itself. Continue reading “Grace’s story: a schoolgirl and a corrupted world”
Back in 1974 William Cary wrote a widely cited article about Delaware in the Yale Law Review, where he stated:
“a pygmy among the 50 states prescribes, interprets, and indeed denigrates national corporate policy as an incentive to encourage incorporation within its borders, thereby increasing its revenue.”
Today, the problem is larger, as Delaware continues what a more recent observer calls “a political tradition of self-serving venality.” Continue reading “Renting Judges for Secret Rulings in Delaware”
Following our blog yesterday looking at the national security implications of Europe’s tax haven mentality, we have been drawn to this post from 2008, looking at the West’s options in dealing with Russian aggression in Georgia at the time. It lists several interesting possibilities, but we found this one most interesting:
Cry “Havoc” and Let Slip the Dogs of Accounting. Continue reading “Ukraine: how to put pressure on Russia”
From the UK-based Centre for Health and the Public Interest:
“Those investigating the persistence of poverty in developing countries and those struggling to sustain high quality health care in the UK have more in common than we think.”
Why? Well, read on.
We recently briefly blogged an IMF report describing how economic inequality leads to slower economic growth.
Now, in the Financial Times, a fascinating comment article by the IMF Deputy Research Director Jonathan Ostry, whose subtitle is “A more redistributive tax system appears to lead to higher growth.”
It’s a big study, and it has two striking results. Continue reading “Tax justice is good for growth: IMF”
Photo: kremlin.ru, creative commons
If there’s one story you read today make it this one, from Politico Magazine. It’s triggered by the crisis in Ukraine, but it’s been a long time coming.
The point of this short story is clear: Western leaders are waking up to the fact that Russia no longer fears or even respects them. Why? Well:
“Russia thinks the West is no longer a crusading alliance. Russia thinks the West is now all about the money.” Continue reading “Why Russia no longer fears the West. It’s the offshore, stupid”
Ukrainians queue to see their ex-President’s private residence, 23 February 2014. Photo credit: Aleksandr Andreiko, Creative Commons
From Global Witness – see also Daily Mail and The Independent.
Update: see also this important blog, looking at the national security implications of all this corruption.
Anonymous UK company owned Viktor Yanukovych’s presidential palace compound
1 March 2014
The private residence of the newly-toppled president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, has come to be seen as a monument to decadence.[i] When Yanukovych fled, the security personnel around the palace also left, and hundreds of ordinary Ukrainians were, for the first time, able to see the extravagance of the place for themselves. Continue reading “Anonymous UK company owned Viktor Yanukovych’s presidential palace compound”
We have just received the following email from Concerned American, resident in Switzerland. Her/his wrath is directed at our director, John Christensen, who was interviewed on CNN yesterday and – amongst other things – discussed the latest report on Swiss banks from the US Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations. Continue reading “TJN on Switzerland: “Shallow, ignorant and short-sighted””
Ana Gomes
Following the latest Credit Suisse scandal in the United States, Ana Gomes, a European Member of Parliament, has issued this public letter to the chairs of the Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE); and Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON.)
We fully support this letter, and we urge others to do so too. Her letter reads as follows; the original is here.
Continue reading “European MEP calls for hearing on Swiss banking scandals”