Quote of the day, from Elena Panfilova, the Moscow head of Transparency International, on élite Russian money stashed in Europe: “The missing money means schools not funded properly, hospitals not built. For Russian people it’s not funny money, it’s literally killing them.” More quotations … [Read more...]
Archives for 2014
British tax havens fight back against transparency moves
Just over a year ago the British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose family has had tax haven interests for many years, tried to whitewash Britain’s Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies with a statement saying: “I do not think it is fair any longer to refer to any of the Overseas Territories … [Read more...]
Our new events page
We have started populating a new page with events related to Tax Justice. You can find it here. It will be permanently located in the website structure: click on Topics - More - Tax Justice Events. The page does not contain all past events. Please message us if you think we're missing something … [Read more...]
GFI: Illicit Financial Flows Drained $991bn from Developing Economies in 2012
From Global Financial Integrity: Crime, Corruption, Tax Evasion Drained a Record US$991.2 Billion in Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Economies in 2012 Illicit Flows from Developing & Emerging Countries Growing at 9.4% per Year US$6.6 Trillion Stolen from Developing World from … [Read more...]
Links Dec 15
Developing Countries Meet To Discuss BEPS Push Tax-News See also recent blog: On taxing multinationals: latest scorecard for the OECD BEPS project Some of the Rich Collect Art. Others Collect Passports. The New York Times More on economic residency... "Experts estimate that these “economic … [Read more...]
Juncker fails to endorse demands for public registries of ownership
From the blog of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Jean-Claude Juncker appears to have distanced himself from making registers setting out the true owners of companies and other legal entities accessible to journalists and NGOs. The EU Commission president’s carefully worded position is … [Read more...]
Quote of the day – on tax and technological innovation
From Prof. William Lazonick, a widely renowned U.S. analyst of what makes successful companies: "All of the technologies in the iPhone – things like touch-screen technology, GPS, and so on — originated with government spending, funded by taxpayer money. That’s why a company like Apple should be … [Read more...]
Links Dec 12
Corporate transparency: The openness revolution The Economist Kenya: Media, Civil Society Urged to Fight Unfair Tax allAfrica / The Sta Can Africa move away from aid to trade? Zambia Daily Mail Finance: Out of Control? Juncker fails to endorse public registers across EU revealing firms … [Read more...]
Country by country reporting: are the knives already out?
TJN has been pushing for country by country since our launch in 2003, via the concept's designer Richard Murphy. We have made astonishing progress since then: the concept has overcome pretty much all objections and seems on track to be rolled out worldwide. But Joe Stead of Christian Aid has … [Read more...]
Event in London on the Domination of “The City”
The Domination of the City: Holding the City To Account. Tuesday, Dec 16th, 6.30-8.30 pm, Committee Room 16, House of Commons TJN has long argued that the scale and power of the City of London has induced a Finance Curse which afflicts the rest of the UK. In the coming session of the … [Read more...]
Links Dec 11
Trial Delayed as Ex-Banker Charged in Swiss Secrecy Case Collapses The Wall Street Journal Moneybeat See also Ex-HSBC Employee Falciani Said Indicted on Data Theft Bloomberg, and earlier blog Tax haven whistleblowers: where are the human rights organisations? UK territories unite against public … [Read more...]
On so-called “tax competition”
Someone has just posted an article about the need for multinational companies to protect their reputations from investigation of their tax affairs. The gist of the article is that MNCs need to step up their public relations effort to communicate their tax affairs more effectively. So we can all … [Read more...]
Tax haven whistleblowers: where are the human rights organisations?
Update: here's another whistleblower victim of tax haven practices for human rights organisations to help defend. Antoine Deltour, of Luxleaks fame. We are big fans of human rights organisations, generally speaking, but we're going to say some uncomfortable things about some of them … [Read more...]
Tim Worstall: UK will never introduce a “Google Tax”
We're a few days late with this, but it's still fun. There's a commentator out there, a former press officer for the racially challenged and anti-European UK Independence Party, who likes to attack TJN from time to time. His speciality is the sneering, ad hominem attack: he has a record of having … [Read more...]
Links Dec 10
Former Swiss Banker Collapses During WikiLeaks Data Trial Bloomberg "Elmer, 59, is accused of violating the country’s financial secrecy laws in a campaign to raise awareness of the use of Swiss bank accounts for illegal activity including tax evasion", and recent blog Show trial of Swiss … [Read more...]
