From The Guardian:
“Senators Carl Levin and John McCain had harsh words for the Justice Department and the Swiss government, too, as they released a 178-page permanent subcommittee on investigation (PSI) report into offshore tax avoidance. Continue reading “Credit Suisse: industrial scale corruption in Switzerland”
The International Advisor magazine has just reported:
“Guernsey chief minister Peter Harwood resigned today, in the wake of publication of a critical article in the current issue of the British satirical and investigative publication, Private Eye.”
This refers to an excellent report entitled “Milking in Guernsey” by The Eye into the scandal-plagued Guernsey-based Channel Islands Stock Exchange (CISX,) Continue reading “Guernsey milking and the offshore stock exchange”
Bloomberg tax star Jesse Drucker has another fine article out about the Spanish retailer Inditex, the parent of high street retail giant Zara. We would urge you to read it. Among many other things, it contains:
“In the past five years, Inditex has shifted almost $2 billion in profits to a tiny unit operating in the Netherlands and Switzerland, records show. Although that subsidiary employs only about 0.1 percent of Inditex’s worldwide workforce, it reported almost 20 percent of the parent company’s global profits last year.” Continue reading “Fashion retailer’s tax dodges boost European inequality”
A major new report from the indefatigable Citizens for Tax Justice in the U.S.
The Executive Summary begins:
The Sorry State of Corporate Taxes
What Fortune 500 Firms Pay (or Don’t Pay) in the USA And What they Pay Abroad — 2008 to 2012 Continue reading “Report: the Sorry State of U.S. Corporate Taxes, 2008-2012”
We have remarked before on Dubai’s role as a particularly egregious and recalcitrant secrecy jurisdiction, harbouring some of the world’s worst scoundrels and their money: the likes of Indian master criminal Dawood Ibrahim, the arms dealer Viktor Bout, and many others. Dubai ranks 16th in our Financial Secrecy Index overall, and a pretty mucky 19th place (out of 82) when measured purely on its secrecy score. Read the whole fascinating story about how Dubai became a secrecy jurisdiction here.
Now, from Global Witness, a tale to confirm our concerns:
Revealed: Why Dubai’s first conflict gold audit never saw the light of day
25th February 2014
According to a former partner at Ernst & Young, the global accountancy firm turned a blind eye when a report of major audit failures at Dubai’s biggest gold refinery went unpublished. A Global Witness report released today, City of Gold,considers the implications.
Continue reading “Ernst & Young: why Dubai’s first conflict gold audit was silenced”
Cross-posted from the Treasure Islands blog:
From the Financial Times, a short video entitled Bright Future for British Engineering? It looks at some promising stuff going on in the Advanced Manufacturing Research Park, a collaboration between the University of Sheffield and Boeing Corp.
The video is notable not just for the fact that the t-word is absent. Continue reading “Local innovators lament the City of London’s failure”
Recently we explored the welcome (if imperfect) news that the OECD had presented its report on a new global standard for countries and tax havens to exchange information with each other automatically: a brand new tool for fighting tax evasion. And a few days ago we reported on a European parliamentary vote to create public registries of companies and trusts in the EU.
Now, from Tax-News.com:
“European Union Tax Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta has confirmed that an agreement on plans to revise the European Union (EU) Savings Tax Directive is expected in March. Continue reading “Automatic info exchange: will Europe’s spoilers soon play ball?”
We’ve been sent a nice cartoon about the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement – which, while not an issue we’re working on directly, is interesting. Continue reading “The Trans Pacific Partnership, economists, bozos and bamboozlement”
From TJN-Africa and Christian Aid:
February 24 2014
GROWTH IN AFRICA FAILS TO CURB SOARING INEQUALITY, SAYS NEW REPORT
Unprecedented economic growth in a number of African countries is going hand in hand with soaring inequality, which national tax systems are failing to address, according to a new report.
Continue reading “New report: Growth in Africa fails to curb soaring inequality”
Richard Murphy and Ethical Consumer today launch the Fair Tax Mark:
“The world’s first independent accreditation scheme to address the issue of responsible tax.”
From Global Witness, via email:
European Parliament votes to end anonymous shell companies Continue reading “European Parliament votes to end anonymous shell companies”
In the February 2014 Taxcast: Are European tax havens getting ‘illegal state subsidies’? The European Union’s Competition Commissioner thinks they may be. Are the world’s tax havens really going to become more transparent? We analyse the OECD’s automatic information exchange proposal, warts and all. And the tax haven of the Bahamas is broke – the government’s solution? Tax the poor! Continue reading “The February Taxcast: Bahamas and more”
From Jesse Griffiths, Eurodad, with permission.
Foreign investment – much smaller than you might believe
You may have seen that foreign direct investment (FDI) was judged last month to have finally regained pre-crisis levels, and that a record percentage of all FDI – 52% – went to developing countries in 2013. The UN’s figures say $759 billion of new investment flowed into developing countries in 2013, right? Well, no actually they say nothing of the sort, but it requires a bit of digging to understand why. Continue reading “Foreign investment – smaller than you might believe”
Author: Monika Flueckiger, World Economic Forum. Creative Commons
From the Brisbane Times:
“An $880 million payout to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has reignited the debate over whether global companies pay their fair share of tax in Australia. Continue reading “Australian tax office forced to pay Murdoch $880m over offshore scheme”
Image credit: Davidd, via Flickr. Creative Commons
A nice article from the UK’s Independent newspaper:
“On Tuesday I had breakfast with a top team from the Swiss Bankers Association, who talked about what had happened since the signing of an agreement with Britain
Continue reading “Swiss “Rubik” secrecy deal – let’s make sure those nails stay in that coffin”
From Brass Moustache productions:
“Where is the gold buried when crisis is looming and society begins to demand its share?
With eloquence and polite mutual support, the British business establishment elegantly winds its way out of society’s demands of accountability and community, and vast amounts of money are diverted away from the state coffers through a net of confusing transactions, Caribbean tax havens and a shelter of bureaucracy. All wrapped up in the “Union Jack”.” Continue reading “The UK Gold film: now available online”
“Are we Swiss all criminals?” The poster asks. No. But many Swiss bankers are.
Switzerland, it seems, has rejected the OECD’s new project on automatic information exchange, out of hand.
Continue reading “Swiss reject OECD’s new transparency project”
We have finally completed the full upload to our website of all our past editions of Tax Justice Focus, our inaugural newsletter.
Please take a look.
TJN is pleased to publish a new briefing paper looking at the implications for developing countries of the OECD’s widely referenced Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project, which is designed to find ways to tackle the deficiencies in the international tax system. It is available in English and Spanish. Continue reading “New TJN briefing: OECD’s BEPS project for developing countries”
The U.S.-based Tax Analysts has just published a fascinating article with the bland title Should Donor Countries Push Tax Reform? The answer, we think, is generally ‘yes’ – though it depends, of course, what we mean by ‘reform.’ The article notes: Continue reading “Should donors boost aid to Pakistan if it won’t tax its élites?”
France 2 explores the report yesterday
From Le Monde:
“The corporations in the CAC 40 [France’s benchmark stock exchange index of the 40 biggest French stocks] have over 1,500 affiliates in tax havens, according to a study published on Thursday by the journal Project . . . cross-checked with authoritative studies data (the work of the Tax Justice Network Association in particular) and the most recent list of tax havens of the [OECD] Global Forum on Transparency.”
. . .
Its authors estimate that, according to their research, ‘their presence in tax havens has not diminished since 2009.”
Read the study, conducted in partnership with the plateforme paradis fiscaux et judiciaries here (in French.) See further coverage in L’expansion, Mediapart, and on France 2 television.
Hat tip: Mathilde Dupré.
From the ICIJ:
“The British Virgin Islands have never been accused of taking financial secrecy lightly. But last week, members of the BVI legislature took a step toward raising the territory’s noted secrecy protections to new heights. Continue reading “BVI tax haven floats 20 years in prison for whistleblowers”