Page 86 – Tax Justice Network

Tax haven Panama: it’s time for blacklists and sanctions now

Ten years ago Jeffrey Robinson published a book about tax havens called The Sink, where he quotes a U.S. Customs official as saying of Panama:

“The country is filled with dishonest lawyers, dishonest bankers, dishonest company formation agents and dishonest companies registered there by those dishonest lawyers so that they can deposit dirty money into their dishonest banks. The Free Trade Zone is the black hole through which Panama has become one of the filthiest money laundering sinks in the world.”

Continue reading “Tax haven Panama: it’s time for blacklists and sanctions now” →

Tweet of the day: Bono and the “Double Irish” tax loophole

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Our tweet of the day:[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_raw_js]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[/vc_raw_js][vc_column_text]More on Bono’s self-justifications very soon.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The (-ve) Value of Jersey to the UK Economy

The G20 summit meeting of world leaders in Brisbane next month will have corporate transparency on the agenda. Unsurprisingly, secrecy jurisdictions are working overtime to deflect attention away from their core activities, such as the provision of secrecy and facilities to escape tax, legally or not. Continue reading “The (-ve) Value of Jersey to the UK Economy” →

African low income countries demand fair share of tax

The press release. Click to enlarge.

From Tove Maria Ryding at Eurodad, via email:

At a media event in Washington last week, finance ministers of francophone low-income countries (DRC and Cameroon) demanded a “fair share of global tax revenues” and a “high-level meeting under UN auspices”. Continue reading “African low income countries demand fair share of tax” →

Guest blog: Tax and the social contract in Brazil

Falling poverty rates are something to celebrate – photo: JEC

Guest blog: Tax and the social contract in Brazil

By Marcus Melo, professor of Political Science at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, and Armando Barrientos, co-research director of the International Research Institute on Brazil & Africa.

Internationally, debates on tax in Brazil often focus on its refusal to adopt OECD transfer pricing guidelines, but the country’s domestic arrangements also offer a fascinating window on its impressive development progress. Continue reading “Guest blog: Tax and the social contract in Brazil” →

TJN Africa takes Kenya government to court over Mauritius treaty

TJN-Africa counsel Gitobu Imanyara. (Photo: Dennis Ayemba, west Fm)

Kenya’s Star newspaper is reporting that TJN-Africa has gone to the High Court in Nairobi to stop a double tax treaty between Kenya and Mauritius, which is supposed to come into effect in July 2015.

Not only do tax treaties with tax havens like Mauritius often allow multinational corporations to strip profits artificially out of victim countries (in this case Kenya), but they also insert a secrecy turntable into the transactions and help Kenyan citizens dodge taxes by “round-tripping” investments illicitly through shell companies in Mauritius. Continue reading “TJN Africa takes Kenya government to court over Mauritius treaty” →

Occupy is back: new protests in London

From Occupy, via email:

OCCUPY IS BACK

Pro-democracy campaigners will occupy Parliament Square in London for nine days next week.

On October 17th Parliament Square will once again be flooded with people who will refuse to be moved.

Continue reading “Occupy is back: new protests in London” →

How Finland’s tax treaties contradict its development policies

Update for tax treaty aficionados: we are reminded that the Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation (VIDC) published this study of Austrian tax treaties in April: Austrian Tax Treaties signed with Developing Countries – a Legal and Economic Analysis.

From Finnwatch, a report on Finnish double taxation treaties (DTTs) which analyse how fair and beneficial they are for developing countries. The report was inspired by SOMO’s similar report on Netherlands’ DTTs, published last year, although the Finnwatch report’s scope is somewhat larger, in that it includes also treaty policies on harmful tax competition. Continue reading “How Finland’s tax treaties contradict its development policies” →

Direct corporate welfare costs UK taxpayers £85bn a year

Kevin Farnsworth

We recently remarked on the good work done by Good Jobs First in highlighting state-level corporate welfare in the United States. Greg Leroy of Good Jobs First also points is towards the work by the Pew Charitable Trusts to bring more transparency to federal-level subsidies and spending. Now, from The Guardian:

“Kevin Farnsworth, a senior lecturer in social policy at the University of York, has spent the best part of a decade studying corporate welfare – delving through Whitehall spreadsheets and others, and poring over Companies House filings. He’s just produced what is, as far as I know, the first ever comprehensive audit of the British corporate welfare state.”

Farnsworth finds that the subsidies and grants paid directly to UK businesses in the financial year 2011-add up to to over £14bn – that is, almost three times the £5bn paid out that year in income-based jobseeker’s allowance.

“Add to that the corporate tax benefits, the value of the cheap credit made available to banks and other business, the insurance schemes run by the government to protect exporters, the marketing for British business laid on by Vince Cable’s ministry, the public procurement from the private sector … Farnsworth calculates that direct corporate welfare costs British taxpayers just shy of £85bn a year. This, he admits, is a conservative estimate.”
This is work that could usefully be done for other countries in the world.

Anonymous company ownership, in a picture

This is from a new Global Witness report entitled “The shell starts to crack? Real owners of Myanmar’s oil and gas blocks come forward.”

We like this picture because it shows, simply, how issues that are at the heart of TJN’s work are so multi-faceted. Illegal logging in Asia connects with the foreclosure mess in the U.S., to blood diamonds and tax evasion. Continue reading “Anonymous company ownership, in a picture” →

Tanzanian MP Zitto Kabwe calls on Commonwealth to tackle illicit capital flight

Zitto Kabwe MP

This is the transcript of the presentation by Zitto Kabwe, MP United Republic of Tanzania delivered to the 60th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference Yaoundé, Cameroon, 2th – 10th October, 2014 Continue reading “Tanzanian MP Zitto Kabwe calls on Commonwealth to tackle illicit capital flight” →

TJN Australia demands more corporate transparency on tax

Today’s edition of the Brisbane Times carries a Comment from TJN Australia’s redoubtable campaigner, Dr Mark Zirnsak, responding to the backlash to the recent report on corporate tax avoidance by Australian companies. Continue reading “TJN Australia demands more corporate transparency on tax” →

Switzerland wants to cherry-pick “partner” countries on transparency

“Are we Swiss all criminals?” The poster asks. No. But many Swiss bankers are.

Updated, Oct 10, with additional analysis from the Swiss “Q and A“:

Switzerland has grudgingly made some important concessions on secrecy in recent years – although we’ve always been at pains to stess that it has happened an inch at a time, and usually bilaterally. Typically, this means making concessions to one country alone – most importantly, the United States, or to the European Union. Each time, it’s been in response to intense pressure. Generally, Swiss bankers have remained at the feeding trough of dirty money from developing countries, since they don’t have the political or economic clout to hurt them back in retaliation for their help-a-plunderer role. Continue reading “Switzerland wants to cherry-pick “partner” countries on transparency” →

China taking multinational corporations to task on tax

This has been brewing for some time. An extensive audit has begun in China of transnational corporations (TNCs) shifting profits for service fees and management fees that are paid to related parties, often in tax havens offshore. Continue reading “China taking multinational corporations to task on tax” →

The words ‘tax’ and ‘human rights’ – now appearing often in the same sentence

From Mauricio Lazala, Deputy Director, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre:

“Recently, I participated in the annual sustainability forum of a global food & beverage company that is highly regarded for its social responsibility policies. The Chairman confidently spoke about their progress on land-grabbings, freedom of association, and access to water. But when somebody mentioned tax avoidance as a human rights issue, he retorted that it was the first time he had heard “tax” and “human rights” mentioned in the same phrase. Continue reading “The words ‘tax’ and ‘human rights’ – now appearing often in the same sentence” →

Publishing tax breaks and subsidies for corporations – a good idea whose time has come

From Good Jobs First

The indefatigable US-based organisation Good Jobs First has sent a fascinating email, which relates to the United States but could have general relevance for other countries. This one is located at the fascinating, busy intersection between tax and transparency.

The intro:

“For many years, we at Good Jobs First have criticized GASB-the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, or “GAZ-bee”- for failing to require state and local governments to disclose economic development subsidy spending in a uniform way.
It appears that’s finally about to change Continue reading “Publishing tax breaks and subsidies for corporations – a good idea whose time has come” →

No it’s not your money: why taxation isn’t theft

A guest blog by Philip Goff.

Many political arguments start from the assumption that taxation is the government taking ‘our money’ off us. When austerity hit the arts in 2011, Dr Steve Davies of the pseudo-think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs argued on Channel Four news [TJN: a mainstream UK television current affairs programme] that the 20% cuts to the arts didn’t go far enough: art funding should be entirely abolished on the grounds that it’s unfair to take people’s money off them by force to pay for something they may not want. Continue reading “No it’s not your money: why taxation isn’t theft” →

Tax and corporate responsibility in Denmark – new report

The Danish organisation IBIS has just released a new report on tax and corporate responsibility, as part of its wider Tax Dialogue project on corporate responsibility. It maps the policies and practice with regards to corporate tax and CSR among some of the most influential corporates and investors in Denmark. The report found that: Continue reading “Tax and corporate responsibility in Denmark – new report” →

On taxing multinationals: latest scorecard for the OECD BEPS project

Prof. Sol Picciotto

The OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) process is the pre-eminent global attempt to try and stop multinational corporations running rings around the world’s tax authorities. We have argued before that the OECD, a club of rich countries, has not sufficiently taken the interests of developing countries into account. We have also been involved in the setting up of a BEPS Monitoring Group, to examine how the process has unfolded.

Now, via email from Prof. Sol Picciotto, Continue reading “On taxing multinationals: latest scorecard for the OECD BEPS project” →

Country by country reporting: news from Finland, Netherlands, France

We just noted some surprising news about PwC’s report for the European Commission endorsing Country by Country (CbC) reporting for banks. Yesterday we learned (h/t Catherine Olier) of some very public new support for CbC reporting from Jyrki Katainen, the European Parliament’s Vice President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness.

Now we have some further progress to report, in different countries. Continue reading “Country by country reporting: news from Finland, Netherlands, France” →

Land Value Tax: back on the table in the UK

Landlords grow rich in their sleep without working, risking or economizing. The increase in the value of land, arising as it does from the efforts of an entire community, should belong to the community and not to the individual who might hold title.

“Landlords grow rich in their sleep without working, risking or economising. The increase in the value of land, arising as it does from the efforts of an entire community, should belong to the community and not to the individual who might hold title.” John Stuart Mill, Political Economy, 1848

Land value taxation, an annual charge on the value of land, has been talked about for a very, very long time. In the UK it was proposed in the people’s budget of Lloyd George in 1909, and in the subsequent election campaign it became such a hot issue the governing liberal party made a song about it, “The Land”, their election anthem in a time before party political broadcasts. You can hear the original 1909 recording here. Continue reading “Land Value Tax: back on the table in the UK” →

Developing countries and tax treaties: learning from mistakes

From Martin Hearson, whom we quoted recently on a related topic:

“One big theme from the interviews I conducted on my recent African trip is that tax officials in developing countries are really starting to raise concerns about some of their tax treaties. This is particularly true of treaties with the Nerherlands, Mauritius and other countries that can leave them vulnerable to treaty shopping, although it doesn’t stop there. Continue reading “Developing countries and tax treaties: learning from mistakes” →

Guest blog: Tax and the social contract in Brazil

Thank you!