Breaking the vicious circles of illicit financial flows, conflict and insecurity Uncounted Fair taxes, fighting inequality essential for Peru Oxfam America Financial transparency - The biggest loophole of all: Having launched and led the battle against offshore tax evasion, America is now … [Read more...]
Archives for 2016
Remembering Rebecca Wilkins, champion for tax justice
The tax justice movement has lost a treasured colleague and friend. Rebecca Wilkins, of razor-sharp intellect and with a powerful gift for tax justice advocacy, passed away on Sunday 14 February 2016. While serving as legal counsel for Citizens for Tax Justice in Washington DC, Rebecca was … [Read more...]
Links Feb 17
Ikea accused of evading over 1 billion in tax payments Global Alliance for Tax Justice Apple issues bonds worth estimated $12bn The Guardian "Move would allow the company to pay shareholders without having to repatriate any of $177bn it holds overseas at lower tax rates than in US". See also: … [Read more...]
HSBC: a very different relocation, tax haven to muckier tax haven
We've just written about HSBC's extensive lobbying effort to water down UK banking reforms by pretending it was planning to throw its toys out of the pram relocate its head office from London to Hong Kong if it didn't get what it wanted. But inside HSBC, a very real relocation is underway. Via … [Read more...]
TJN’s Cobham in top-ranked UK & Ireland economists
From the right wing UK finance publication City A.M., a ranking of the top 100 economists in the U.K. Follow Alex on Twitter here. … [Read more...]
Why Google (and other multinationals) are still not paying their fair share of corporation tax
This guest blog by Tommaso Faccio of Nottingham business school complements a guest blog we ran on Friday by Sol Picciotto, also about Google's all-important tax affairs. Why Google (and other multinationals) are still not paying their fair share of corporation tax Google says that it pays the … [Read more...]
HSBC opts to stay in ‘competitive’ London. (It was never going to leave anyway)
From the Fools' Gold blog, yesterday: There's been a lot of talk for a long time about a threat from globe-trotting HSBC to move its headquarters from London to Hong Kong. It seems there's been a resolution of the question for now, of sorts. As Bloomberg puts it: "HSBC Holdings Plc … [Read more...]
TTIP threatens ability to enforce fair taxes on corporations – report
In light of a new report showing how corporations are using secretive corporate courts to undermine national tax sovereignty, TJN has signed a letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron calling on him to call a halt to negotiations on so-called Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions … [Read more...]
Netherlands, UK push for more transparency
From the Financial Transparency Coalition: Dutch government plans to grant public access to beneficial ownership register Earlier this week, the Dutch Finance Minister, Mr Dijsselbloem, announced that the government would make the upcoming register of beneficial ownership, the so-called … [Read more...]
Which countries have the right to tax Google’s income?
Recently, amid the furore over Google's surprisingly low tax payments in the UK and in other countries, it has been suggested, as one observer put it to us: "The claim is that international tax law accrues profits to where products are created, and not where sales are made. For example, a UK … [Read more...]
Call for Papers: Third Annual Amartya Sen Prize Competition
Call for Papers: Third Annual Amartya Sen Prize Competition Submission Deadline: August 29, 2016 The third Amartya Sen Prize is soliciting papers on the non-revenue impact of curbing illicit financial flows. Poor populations are hurt when rich individuals and multinational corporations … [Read more...]
Links Feb 11
Mbeki Panel to meet with US Officials on illicit financial outflows from Africa United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Redistributing Unpaid Care Work – Why Tax Matters for Women’s Rights Institute of Development Studies The global impact of tax dodging - Are trillions stored in tax … [Read more...]
New signs that Cayman might dismantle its secrecy law
Cayman politicians love to pretend that they aren't living in a tax haven. No, they're part of a responsible international financial centre. And, as we've remarked ad nauseam, they all say that. It's almost a defining feature of tax havens (or, if you prefer to emphasise one important aspect, … [Read more...]
PwC: using ‘competitiveness’ as crowbar to lobby for mining cos
From Fools' Gold: Recently we wrote an article entitled The Ideologists of the Competitiveness Agenda, in which we fingered the Big Four firm of accountants as among the most important vectors for the general idea that countries simply have to 'compete' in certain ways: namely, to shower goodies … [Read more...]
Links Feb 10
Breakthrough for LuxLeaks investigation: EU commission releases secret documents Sven Giegold See also: Juncker Commission announces release of previously undisclosed tax documents Fabio de Masi (in German) EU may impose full tax transparency on US firms EU Observer SwissLeaks Scandal one … [Read more...]
