In July we wrote a blog entitled Luxembourg backing down on supporting tax haven USA. Now it's Switzerland's turn. This concerns the OECD's Common Reporting Standard (CRS,) a global scheme to share banking information. The United States isn't a participating jurisdiction: it has its own FATCA … [Read more...]
Archives for 2016
UN rights experts on Leaks: What else do we need to know to take action?
UN Human Rights experts have released a statement reacting to the latest leaks scandal, and calling for world governments to act together to establish a United Nations body that will work to end tax haven secrecy and offshore tax avoidance and evasion. This follows UN recommendations in the summer … [Read more...]
Links Oct 6
Curbing Illicit Financial Flows and dismantling secrecy jurisdictions to advance women's human rights Global Alliance for Tax Justice Panama Papers honored with a Gold Barlett & Steele Award for Investigative Journalism ICIJ Swiss AG says "serious suspicion" of Swiss banks being involved in … [Read more...]
Links Oct 4
G20 finance chiefs to discuss risks to economy, ending secret company ownership Reuters Study: 73% of Fortune 500 Companies Used Tax Havens in 2015 U.S. PIRG See also: Offshore Shell Games 2016 When It Comes to Tax Avoidance, Donald Trump’s Just a Small Fry The New York Times Trump thinks not … [Read more...]
Beware the siren song of “tax certainty”
Back in July the G20 club of powerful countries issued a communiqué in which they enthused about "the benefits of tax certainty to promote investment and trade," and they mandated the OECD and the IMF "to continue working on the issues of pro-growth tax policies and tax certainty." It's taken as a … [Read more...]
Financial secrecy in football: time for action
Everyone has known for years that football is rotten to the core and financial secrecy is at the heart of the problem. Why then is no one doing anything about it? This post from the Offshore Game project originally features in the Independent. … [Read more...]
Quote of the day – the future of tax havens
From Joseph Stiglitz, writing in Vanity Fair: "It will not be long before those nations that opt to continue with old-style secrecy will be labeled pariah states and be cut off from the global financial system." New and abusive games will continue to emerge to fill the vacuum left by old-style … [Read more...]
Links Sep 30
The Real Scandal Behind the Panama Papers Vanity Fair Panama has passed a law to implement sanctions vs anyone who calls it a tax haven E&N (In Spanish) Capital mobility: The good, the bad and the ugly The Economist 'True FDI is an unalloyed benefit. But the growing practice of using offshore … [Read more...]
OECD threatens Bahamas with blacklisting, Bahamas wilts
The Spanish newspaper El Mundo is running an article in Spanish, whose headline translates as "If Bahamas goes on like this, it will go onto the G20 blacklist" - and the text in quote marks comes from Pascal Saint-Amans, head of tax at the OECD, the club of rich countries. The Bahamas has been in … [Read more...]
Links Sep 28
U.S. Senate's top tax lawmaker targets corporate offshore profits Reuters Battling Apple and the Giants naked capitalism Pakistan Supreme Court clears way for hearing on Panama Papers Gulf News Europe calls on journalists' Panama Papers expertise ICIJ See also: Panama Papers: European parliament … [Read more...]
UN report recommends: go after tax havens, and protect whistleblowers
From the United Nations General Assembly, the fifth report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order. The summary goes like this: "The report focuses on impacts of taxation on human rights and explores the challenges posed to the international … [Read more...]
Ecuador’s president calls for global tax body
Updated with additional information about Correa's administration and exposés in the Panama Papers scandal; scroll down. Ecuador's president Rafael Correa has published a significant statement about international tax governance, and specifically the prospect of creating a global tax organisation. … [Read more...]
EU Leaks – a new platform for whistleblowers
From the Greens / Europe Free Alliance in the European Parliament, a new initiative called EU Leaks: EUleaks is a European platform where you can submit information in a highly secure and anonymous way. Transparency and accountability are essential for democratic governance. The EUleaks project … [Read more...]
DFID’s work on international tax avoidance: in whose interest?
A new report by its own watchdog provides damning criticism of the UK government’s approach to tax as a development issue. At best, the government has ignored both international expertise and the views of the lower-income countries it claims to be helping. At worst, UK policy can be seen as pushing … [Read more...]
Tax Justice Network Sept 2016 Podcast: #AppleTax, #BahamasLeaks and a conman offshore story
In our September 2016 September 2016 podcast: … [Read more...]
