Harold Crooks' (The Corporation, Surviving Progress) searing documentary indictment of offshore finance gets it UK premiere at the Open City Documentary Festival in London on 19th June, and will also be screened the following week at TJN's discussion workshop at City University. … [Read more...]
Archives for 2015
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice #60
Greetings from Liberland! This week’s Offshore Wrapper comes to you from Liberland, the world’s newest tax haven. … [Read more...]
Should tax targets for post-2015 be rejected?
From Alex Cobham, TJN Research Director, writing at Uncounted: "In a strident blog at the International Centre for Tax and Development, Mick Moore, Nora Lustig, Richard Bird, Nancy Birdsall, Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Richard Manning and Wilson Prichard have called for the rejection of post-2015 tax … [Read more...]
Auditor rotation: the new merry-go-round
From Prof. Prem Sikka, via email: "Auditing itself has become one of the biggest frauds of modern times. When was the last time company auditors drew attention to fiddles, tax dodging, money laundering or their own complicity in financial misdemeanours? The penalties for delivering duff audits, … [Read more...]
Links May 18
Should tax targets for post-2015 be rejected? Uncounted - Alex Cobham's Blog Uncounted: has the post-2015 data revolution failed already? Uncounted - Alex Cobham's Blog UNESCAP and Government of Indonesia - Asia Pacific High Level Consultation for Financing for Development Equity BD Links … [Read more...]
A short FAQ on the European Parliament’s probe into tax rulings
We have just mentioned a demonstration today in Luxembourg, in the context of a visit there by the European Parliament committee tasked with following up on the LuxLeaks affair. (It's known as "The Committee on Tax Rulings and Other Measures Similar in Effect" or TAXE for short.) Christian Hallum … [Read more...]
Tax Justice demonstration in Luxembourg as EU tax body visits
Update 2: with a report on the demonstration in Luxemburger Wort, which in contrast to our earlier experiences of Luxembourg media, was quite balanced. Update1 : with a photo (below) of today's protest in Luxembourg. Some 50-60 people are reckoned to have attended, a good turnout … [Read more...]
Links May 15
OECD insists tax playing field will be level swissinfo See also: OECD approval uncertain over tax transparency request procedures STEP (note references to "stolen" rather than leaked data), and see recent blogs: When a tax haven invokes the ‘level playing field’, run for the hills, and Swiss … [Read more...]
Links May 14
Live! Tax justice TV drama! Global Alliance for Tax Justice View recent sessions of the UN Financing for Development negotiations, including the paragraph by paragraph debate of text relating to tax justice Lessons and legacies of the financial crisis in Latin America Global Alliance for Tax … [Read more...]
Tax Justice Focus – the Gender edition
We are delighted to announce the latest edition of our quarterly newsletter,Tax Justice Focus. This is The Gender Edition, and it is guest edited by Liz Nelson of TJN. It complements a new "Gender" page we've just opened up, where these materials will be permanently stored. … [Read more...]
Is France’s economy really less ‘competitive’ than Britain’s?
This post is just a reminder, really, about all the nonsense that is spoken in the name of 'competitiveness.' Of course, this is just quarterly data, and the UK was recently growing faster than France. We aren't going to get into details in this short blog. … [Read more...]
Report: Tax havens cost Egypt’s treasury billions
From Madamsr.com: "Egypt loses as much as LE5 billion [TJN: that's over $650 million; there's also a reference to $2.2 billion in annual trade mispricing] a year in tax revenue due to companies using tax havens to shield profits from taxes, according to a new report from the Egyptian Initiative … [Read more...]
Will UK’s new government help poor countries fight tax haven secrecy?
The United Kingdom is, in many respects, the most important single player in the world of offshore tax havens (or secrecy jurisdictions.) It has many offshore characteristics itself, and it runs a network of partly-British havens, whose laws it can strike down when it really wants to. So it is … [Read more...]
Links May 13
European Parliament's special tax committee running out of time The Parliament LuxLeaks special committee’s first country visit: Belgium is breaching EU tax law Sven Giegold Charged LuxLeaks journalist calls for more whistleblower protection Europe Online Magazine See also: Members of … [Read more...]
Links May 11
Upcoming EU presidency faces whistleblows and calls for transparency Eurodad See also: Letter to Ambassador of Luxembourg in Denmark, on tax avoidance and whistleblowers Exposing South Africa's "Lettergate" Scandal World Policy Blog See also: recent TJN blog South Africa’s diamond companies: … [Read more...]
