A United Nations body has called on the single largest financial secrecy jurisdiction in the world – the United Kingdom and its Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies – to account for the human rights impacts of its unjust tax policies at home and abroad. The call was issued by the UN … [Read more...]
Archives for 2016
New EU Directive on Money Laundering – a curate’s egg
The European Union, amid all the Brexit turmoil, has issued a proposal for a new Directive on money laundering and terrorist financing. Transparency, of course, is at the core of it. The Panama Papers scandal has given new urgency to the task of unmasking the corrupt, the crooks and other financial … [Read more...]
Links Jul 5
Poverty amidst plenty: How Africans are robbed of benefits of mineral wealth Pambazuka News Zambia's New Mining Tax Regime May Fail the Test of Time National Resource Governance Institute Rich landowners are reaping billions from a tax loophole meant to benefit India's poor farmers Bloomberg … [Read more...]
Anti-tax, anti-regulation sirens already emerging after Brexit
Just before the Brexit vote we quoted Adam Posen, President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, about what might happen in a post-Brexit Britain: "If you’re anti-regulation fantasists to begin with, you start going down the path, ‘Oh we can become an even more offshore center. We … [Read more...]
Two new transparency advances, in UK and US
From Global Witness: "Information on who ultimately owns and controls British companies goes live for the first time today." That's good news, amid all the Brexit brouhaha (and idiotic and dangerous plans to privatise the UK's Land Registry.) Meanwhile, the FACT coalition in the United States … [Read more...]
Links Jun 30
LuxLeaks: Luxembourg court condemned for guilty verdicts The Parliament See also: Grand dodgy - The good deeds of the Luxembourg leakers do not go unpunished The Economist, Campaigners condemn punishment of Luxleaks whistleblowers who acted in the public interest Global Alliance for Tax Justice, … [Read more...]
Brexit gets worse as London seeks to wriggle free from UK
Cross-posted from Fools' Gold. We have our own particular reasons for disliking Brexit - the recent decision by the UK to leave the European Union. In a pre-Brexit analysis we quoted Adam Posen, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, who articulated what is probably … [Read more...]
The #LuxLeaks whistleblowers verdict: our statement
New ranking of how transparent the think tanks are
From Transparify.com, a new report: "We visited think tanks’ websites and looked at the funding and donor information disclosed online, including in online annual reports. Institutions rated with the maximum of five stars are highly transparent about who funds them. Think tanks with four stars are … [Read more...]
Links Jun 28
The Great Trump Tax Mysteries: Is He Hiding Loopholes, Errors, or Something More Serious? Vanity Fair By TJN's @nickshaxson, author of Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World Join a special "fanzone" in Paris for the match between multinationals and whistleblowers PFJ (In … [Read more...]
Should Europe trust trusts?
Embargoed until 6pm CET 28 June 2016 Should Europe trust trusts? Press Release: New report exposes holes in global and EU anti-money laundering rules on trusts, and explains how they can be fixed. Trusts, in the popular imagination, are mostly for family matters, such as a rich father deciding … [Read more...]
Luxembourg on trial as Luxleaks whistleblowers await tomorrow’s verdict
Tomorrow afternoon the "LuxLeaks" trial will end and the two whistleblowers, Antoine Deltour and Raphaël Halet, as well as the journalist Eduard Perrin, will know whether they will be punished or not, for breaking Luxembourg's secrecy regime. They face up to 18 months in jail for exposing lurid … [Read more...]
Kenya tax haven approaching: secrecy to be enforced with prison terms
We have for a while been sounding alarms about the emergence of (yet) another tax haven/secrecy jurisdiction in Kenya. A few months ago we quoted the newspaper African Arguments: “Anti-corruption campaigner John Githongo has warned that in this setting, the NIFC “would be like a financial crime … [Read more...]
Our June 2016 Podcast: Brexit, quantifying kleptocracy & why Panama Papers is tip of offshore iceberg
In our June 2016 Taxcast: how different could the lives of those in poverty have been without secrecy jurisdictions? We give you the very latest estimates on the missing trillions offshored from the world's developing regions. Also: Brexit and the special interests behind it: “Nakedly, brazenly, … [Read more...]
Links Jun 23
Defending public services together! PSI "We need to ensure multinationals pay their fair share of tax and that governments use this revenue to drive public sector growth through investment in universal, quality public services" Opinion for the public hearing of the Finance Committee of the … [Read more...]
