Organised crime has had a long association with tax havens, and tax evasion. After All, Al Capone was imprisoned for tax evasion, and not any of the other crimes that it is said he committed. But how much do governments and police forces include tackling tax havens in their thinking of modern organised crime? Not much according to two experts on the issue Mary Young and Michael Woodwiwiss. Continue reading “Guest Post – Snowstorm – tax havens and organised crime today”
For months the public and governments around the world have been totally mystified at the lack of any plan coming from the UK government on how it intends to extract itself from the European Union following the Brexit referendum in June 2016.
On Sunday the British Chancellor of the Exchequer revealed the hand of the May government. As seems to have become the tradition, he did so in a European newspaper. It appears that the UK is now openly threatening to turn itself into the world’s largest tax haven if the EU does not yield to its demands for free access to the European market. Continue reading “The real losers of the UK becoming a tax haven”
The UK’s tax authority HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) has an educational youtube video for children which is, in their words ‘A simple introduction to tax for 8 to 11 year olds, which explains that taxes provide the money needed to pay for the things that are essential to them, their families, communities and society as a whole.’
Seems reasonable. It’s about time they made an effort to talk about why tax is so important rather than focus their energy on threatening people with awareness that there’s a hefty penalty coming their way if they don’t get hurry up and file their tax returns before the deadline. Continue reading “UK tax authority awareness raising for children on the importance of tax”
2016: a year of fireworks (photo CC)
2016 was the year when the world underwent profound political change. Most notably there were a series of political earthquakes in the US and Europe, with the election of Donald Trump and the decision of the UK to exit the European Union.
Going into 2017 these changes look likely to have a deep and lasting impact on tax policy and the distribution of wealth.
In our December 2016 Taxcast: In trusts we trust? We look at the new game in town: beneficial ownership avoidance, the booming industry in alternative escape vehicles from public registers and why we must shine the spotlight on all of them.
Plus: we discuss two big stories we think will define 2017: the race to the bottom between nations on tax aka a transfer of wealth to the corporate community, and how the world’s biggest havens are increasingly having to account for the devastating effect their tax and/or financial secrecy policies are having on human rights around the world… We also report from the appeal of tax justice heroes Antoine Deltour and Rapahel Halet in Luxembourg. Continue reading “Ownership Avoidance, the Great Escape in the Tax Justice Network December 2016 Podcast”
In Neoliberalism and the Moral Economy of Fraud, (Routledge, 2016) David Whyte and Jörg Wiegratz offer an edited collection exploring how neoliberalism has enabled the proliferation of systemic fraud across different geographical and social settings. Continue reading “Neoliberalism and the Moral Economy of Fraud: book review by Atul Shah”
Today the British Parliament will debate a Bill that tries to tackle unfair tax treaties between the UK and developing countries, some of which go back to the 1940s, sometimes when countries were still British colonies. It’s an initiative we very much welcome and we hand over to our friends at Action Aid UK to tell you more about it: Continue reading “Tackling unfair tax treaties between developing countries and the UK, in UK Parliament today”
The Tax Justice Network has been recognised once again as being among the top fifty global organisations influencing geopolitical tax policy matters in 2016. According to International Tax Review: “Global tax transparency advances in 2016 have been influenced by TJN’s efforts and some of its biggest campaigns to date have earned it a place in the Global Top 50.”
TJN has always taken a sceptical view of corporate social responsibility. Our outlook has been shaped by the view that real social and economic responsibility starts with paying the right amount of tax, to the right country, at the right time. Continue reading “Corporate social responsibility, tax avoidance, and counting spoons”
Welcome to this month’s podcast and radio programme in Spanish with Marcelo Justo and Marta Nunez, downloaded and broadcast on radio networks across Latin America and Spain. ¡Bienvenidos y bienvenidas a nuestro podcast y programa radiofonica! (abajo en castellano). This month: Continue reading “Our December 2016 Spanish language Tax Justice Podcast: Justicia ImPositiva, nuestro podcast de diciembre 2016”
The introduction of a key policy tool against multinational companies’ tax avoidance has been handled so badly that developing countries are now exposed to worse inequalities. In a new report published today, we call for immediate changes to limit the damage done. Continue reading “For rich countries only: A global map of multinationals’ tax avoidance”
On July 22nd, 2016 the French supreme constitutional court ruled on a case brought by a US American citizen resident in France who had created a trust, allegedly to distribute her inheritance. She was contesting moves by France to set up a public register of trusts connected to France in an attempt to tackle tax fraud and serious economic and financial crime[1]. So, what does this mean for transparency and tax justice? Continue reading “Beneficial Ownership and disclosure of trusts: challenging the privacy arguments”
How do you contribute meaningfully to the debate about the decisions governments make on levels of fossil fuel subsidies or tax and budgetary decisions that affect us all? And how do you prove (or disprove) that big mega-projects are a good use of taxpayer’s money? Well, part of the answer is through learning to use modelling techniques using publicly available information. Andres Knobel of the Tax Justice Network recently participated in OpenOil’s free online course on fiscal and financial modelling of extractive industries (mining, oil, etc.), which covered issues such as how to read oil and mining contracts, and the fundamentals of taxing the extractive industries. Continue reading “The importance of modelling for tax discussions: show me the numbers!”
Ahead of the publication of the results of the 2017 Financial Secrecy Index (FSI), the Tax Justice Network is reaching out to ask for your support in conducting pro-bono research. The FSI 2017 is expected to be published between October and December 2017.
Since its first publication in 2009, the FSI has become the only global ranking of ‘tax havens’, which combines measures of both the secrecy on offer and the international importance of the jurisdiction. Published every two years, the FSI has grown in global media coverage, in practical usage and, increasingly, in academic research. It helps drawing attention to the role played by large economies in the looting of developing countries by facilitating illicit financial flows.
In light of the fast pace of change in international tax and finance, TJN has done an in-depth review process of the FSI methodology which led, among other changes, to the creation of a number of new key indicators and several amendments of existing key indicators. Following these changes, some of the new indicators include research questions which require further in-depth research for each of the 111 jurisdictions we plan to assess for the FSI 2017 .
The relevant research questions focus on the following subjects: a) beneficial ownership information of assets stored in freeports and cash vaults; b) beneficial ownership registry of real estate; c)the requirement of a secondary mechanism of country by country reporting; d) transparency of cross-border tax rulings; e) transparency of both criminal and civil tax proceedings; i) the risk of prison sentences for bankers who manage money of illicit origin.
If you would like to explore any of these subjects, we would be grateful for your assistance in this regard. The research may be of specific relevance if you could combine the research topics for any thesis or research project of your own. We believe the results of this type of comparative research may be of use in an academic context and are of relevance to anyone concerned about illicit financial flows and global wealth inequality. Furthermore, the results can be used as a basis for valuable future studies and potential reports which we may be happy to either initiate or take part in.
If you are interested in any of these research areas/in supporting us, please send an email and a CV to: [email protected], no later than 15 December 2016.
As the global Anti-Corruption Conference begins in this week in Panama City, the case of Dutch citizen Okke Ornstein has hit the headlines. Okke, who lived in Panama was recently jailed on a charge of defamation. Continue reading “When free speech is criminal”
In less than a year data will start to flow under a new scheme for countries to share information automatically across borders, to help each other collect taxes from their taxpayers and fight financial crimes and abuses. The scheme is the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) which was set up by the OECD, a club dominated by rich countries. The scheme will start to deliver global automatic exchange of information from 2017. Continue reading “Switzerland and information exchange: tweak, tweak and something will always remain”
The East Africa Tax and Governance Network (EATGN) has today launched its first report on taxation and human rights in East Africa. Continue reading “Taxing Rights and Human Rights in East Africa – new report”
The impacts on gender of tax and spending decisions made by governments although important are often little understood by decision makers. As the UK government sets out its autumn statement the Women’s Budget Group is seeking to promote understanding of this issue.
The British Prime Minister today hinted that she is considering further corporate tax cuts and increases in corporate welfare after US President elect Donald Trump signaled he would seek to slash the US federal corporation tax rate to 15%. Theresa May’s speech signals a renewed commitment by her government to what it misleadingly called ‘tax competition’. In our view, the policy is an act of economic recklessness which puts the UK at the head of a global race to the bottom on corporate taxation that the world really does not need. Continue reading “Corporate Tax Wars: May tries to trump Trump in a race to the bottom”
Over the years, we’ve chronicled the tax haven denial of many secrecy jurisdictions, even building a partial list of those who have publicly claimed “We are not a tax haven!” Now, at the prompting of tax twitter (notably Mary Cosgrove and Stephanie Johnston, with honourable mentions to Aisling Donoghue, Toby Quantrill and Richard Smith), we thought we’d have a go at crowdsourcing a more full listing.
This is being done as part of the Open Data for Tax Justice project which TJN and our partners at Open Knowledge International have set up with Omidyar Network support, to which new members are always welcome (our major focus at the moment is on the creation of a public database of country-by-country reporting – on which your views are sought). Continue reading “Crowdsourcing request: “We are not a tax haven!””
Welcome to the Tax Justice Network November 2016 Podcast! In this month’s Taxcast:
– Tax Inspectors Without Borders – we look at a practical project that’s changing lives and aiming to level the global playground of tax-minimising multinational companies.
– Plus: what does new US President Trump mean for tax justice?
– And, in Trusts we trust? The French Constitutional Court upholds a challenge to France’s trailblazing public register of Trusts: what does it mean for progress on financial transparency? Continue reading “Tax Inspectors Without Borders, US President Trump and Tax Justice: our November 2016 podcast”