About George Turner
Review of 2016
2016 was the year when the world underwent profound political change. Most notably there were a series of political earthquakes in the US and Europe, with the election of Donald Trump and the decision of the UK to exit the European Union. Going into 2017 these changes look likely to have a deep and lasting impact on tax policy and the
Read the full article…When free speech is criminal
As the global Anti-Corruption Conference begins in this week in Panama City, the case of Dutch citizen Okke Ornstein has hit the headlines. Okke, who lived in Panama was recently jailed on a charge of defamation. TweetShare
Corporate Tax Wars: May tries to trump Trump in a race to the bottom
The British Prime Minister today hinted that she is considering further corporate tax cuts and increases in corporate welfare after US President elect Donald Trump signaled he would seek to slash the US federal corporation tax rate to 15%. Theresa May’s speech signals a renewed commitment by her government to what it misleadingly called ‘tax competition’. In our view, the policy
Read the full article…New Report: HMRC’s “Building our Future” programme
Yesterday the Tax Justice Network was in the UK Parliament to launch a report it co-produced with the Public and Commercial Services Union. The report, entitled “HMRC, Building an Uncertain Future” is a study of HMRC’s (the UK tax authority) reform plans which it is calling “Building our Future”. The report published yesterday analysed the proposed reforms at HMRC by
Read the full article…The World Bank’s Dirty Finance
In 3 October 2016, following a months-long investigation, Inclusive Development International, a human rights organisation, in collaboration with three other NGOs, published a report uncovering coal projects financed by the World Bank’s private-sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC). TweetShare
EU relaunches CCCTB: A step towards unitary taxation
This week saw the re-launch of the European Union’s Common Corporate Consolidated Tax Base (CCCTB). The purpose of the CCCTB is to harmonise the rules around how multinational corporations are taxed across the European Union, and to switch from OECD tax rules to a unitary approach with formulary apportionment (more on that below). The CCCTB was originally launched in 2011,
Read the full article…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. TweetShare
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 lower-income countries into supporting international tax rules that exacerbate
Read the full article…UK tax authority: too close to big business, too far from the public – report
The UK’s tax collection agency is more secretive than MI6 and crippled by corporate interests according to a new report launched in the House of Commons yesterday. Corporate interests now exercise a significant amount of control over HMRC, it says – and it is hard not to agree. All of the non-executive directors of HMRC come from the world of business.
Read the full article…Conference Alert! International Tax Avoidance, Tax Evasion and Tax Justice
Please see the details for an exciting conference being hosted by the University of Barcelona. For those interested in attending please contact the organisers directly using the details at the bottom of this page. TweetShare
Good news for the few: The OECD’s new information exchange standard
In a surprise move, the OECD has published yesterday the full details of its Standard on Automatic Information Exchange (AIE) – much earlier than announced and expected. The Tax Justice Network’s preliminary response provides some analysis of the new system. The report entitled “Catering to tax havens at the expense of developing countries“ can be downloaded here. In their final
Read the full article…July 2014 Taxcast
In the Tax Justice Network’s latest podcast: The July 2014 Taxcast: what really happened at the Google shareholder meeting vote on a proposal for ethical tax principles? Plus: we discuss what the new tax haven-friendly EU Commission President might do (or not do), anti-democratic moves in Hong Kong from the big four accountancy firms, and: forget the OECD’s global tax
Read the full article…The Offshore Wrapper: A week in Tax Justice – 25th Edition
The Offshore Wrapper is written by George Turner To subscribe sign up here: http://www.taxjustice.net/offshore-wrapper-signup/ “We do not want to become another Cyprus” The former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia is about to become the latest combatant in the tax wars. Prime minister Nikola Gruevski has put forward proposals to attract multinationals by setting up an international financial zone (or tax haven if
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