Tax avoidance by corporations is out of control. The United Nations must step in The Guardian Comment by José Antonio Ocampo and Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona The Bitter Taste of Tax Avoidance Huffington Post Finance Minister Minister announces tax amnesty for Luxembourg Luxembuger Wort "The … [Read more...]
Archives for 2015
Links Oct 15
In Norway, Everyone's Income Is Public—and So Is Tax Paid The Atlantic Big Data and Tax Haven Secrecy Social Science Research Network "... how tax haven secrecy enables elites in non-democratic countries to transfer their monies for ultimate investment in stable democratic countries." Via … [Read more...]
Finance Uncovered: a proper introduction
We've linked to Finance Uncovered on several occasions -- not least this week -- but never as comprehensively as this. From the Byline website, a proper introduction, which nicely illustrates our operating model. Introducing Finance Uncovered Global finance has no borders – neither do we. … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice #70
MTN’s Mauritian Billions A group of investigative journalists in Africa working with Finance Uncovered, a TJN supported project have discovered that Africa’s largest mobile phone network, MTN, has been moving billions of Rand in revenue to the island of Mauritius. … [Read more...]
What will BEPS fix, and who will gain?
A guest blog by Sol Picciotto, co-ordinator of the BEPS Monitoring Group. What will BEPS fix, and who will gain? The launch this week of the final reports from the G20/OECD project on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) has sparked two frequently asked questions. The first is: can we give … [Read more...]
Links Oct 13
Facebook tax bill highlights Osborne’s ‘diverted profits’ levy Financial Times (paywall) Cites TJN's research director @alexcobham: “it is simply not credible that Facebook is unprofitable in one of its more mature and active markets such as the UK. Examples like this simply serve as a reminder as … [Read more...]
Links 12 Oct
Tax avoidance fuels global inequality CNN Opinion piece by Joseph Stiglitz. Tax reforms are small beer when big firms are denying poor countries billions The Guardian See also our recent press release: OECD’s BEPS proposals will not be the end of tax avoidance by multinationals India: … [Read more...]
Seychelles: the ex-billionaire and the captured state
We've never laid down hard and fast definitions of the terms 'tax haven' or 'secrecy jurisdiction' because there's so much to say about what makes these places tick, and no short definition captures the whole picture. But we offer this way of thinking about these places. Among other things, it … [Read more...]
Finance Uncovered: how Africa’s biggest cell phone firm shifts billions offshore
From Finance Uncovered, a TJN-founded project, a press release about a story that is (among other things) front page of South Africa's influential Mail & Guardian newspaper. Finance Uncovered reveals how Africa’s biggest cell phone firm shifts billions offshore The Finance Uncovered global … [Read more...]
Links Oct 8
Why India should defend this whistleblower from the Swiss justice system Scroll.in "Hervé Falciani, who exposed the global offshore industry with the HSBC data leak, is facing prosecution under skewed Swiss laws for data theft and espionage." See also: Guest blog: how Switzerland corrupted its … [Read more...]
How 1/8th of Moldova’s GDP vanished, via a Scottish council flat
From the BBC: "The UK is one of the easiest countries in the world to set up a company in, and some agents offer to do it in an hour, for as little as £25." In standard parlance, this makes the UK an 'efficient' place to set up a company, reassuringly free of that pesky 'red tape.' All good stuff. … [Read more...]
On tax credits, economic misunderstandings and the poor
The UK economics writer Chris Dillow has an excellent post making some basic points about tax credits, following a recent speech by the UK's finance minister (or "Chancellor") George Osborne, where he says: "We simply can’t subsidise incomes with ever-higher welfare and tax credit bills the … [Read more...]
So: what kinds of corporate tax schemes won’t BEPS stop?
There have been a few inquiries from people in the media looking at our (and others') recent critiques of the OECD's recently-released BEPS project proposals to tackle international corporate tax avoidance. One pertinent question is this: which schemes, specifically, won't BEPS stop? Prof. Sol … [Read more...]
Links Oct 7
Dirty Money UK BBC Radio 4 More taxes will help fight inequality: economist BusinessTech Piketty "promotes wealth redistribution as key to development". See also Piketty's address to the 2015 Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture EU agrees greater transparency on tax deals after LuxLeaks scandal … [Read more...]
New study: U.S. Fortune 500 cos have $2.1 trillion offshore
From Citizens for Tax justice, via email: "Today Citizens for Tax Justice and the U.S. PIRG Education Fund released, "Offshore Shell Games," a new study which found that nearly three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies maintained at least one tax haven subsidiary in 2014, with just 30 companies … [Read more...]
