About John Christensen
TJN on Switzerland: “Shallow, ignorant and short-sighted”
We have just received the following email from Concerned American, resident in Switzerland. Her/his wrath is directed at our director, John Christensen, who was interviewed on CNN yesterday and – amongst other things – discussed the latest report on Swiss banks from the US Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations. TweetShare
The offshore wrapper: a week in tax justice
Welcome to this week’s Offshore Wrapper by George Turner: a look back over the past week in tax justice European Parliament backs crackdown on money laundering On Thursday the European Parliament took an important step towards ending financial secrecy and dodgy shell companies when a committee of the European Parliament voted to approve a report into a proposal for a
Read the full article…Your tax cuts at work
British prime minister David Cameron has announced that money is no object when it comes to tackling the floods now inundating towns to the west of London. TweetShare
Flipping the corruption myth
TJN has previously challenged the prevailing discourse on corruption; and we have taken particular issue with Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which looks at corruption through a highly distorted prism. TweetShare
GFI: $410bn illicit flows in or out of Philippines from 1960-2011
February 4, 2014 Philippine Economy Loses US2.9 Billion in Illicit Financial Outflows from Crime, Corruption, Tax Evasion over 52-Year Period; US7.6 Billion Transferred Illegally into the Philippines Smuggling through Trade Misinvoicing Cost Philippine Taxpayers at Least US$23 Billion in Customs Revenue since 1990 25% of Value of All Goods Imported into Philippines Goes Unreported to Customs Officials TweetShare
TJN’s Offshore Wrapper: The week in tax justice
We are all in this together “Frankly I don’t like any taxes at all,” David Cameron told the Federation of Small Businesses last week. TweetShare
Why does food cost so much in Jersey?
Today’s edition of the Jersey Evening Post leads with an article headed ‘Official: Why food costs so much more in Jersey’. Food prices, according to a new study, are one third higher than in the UK. Worse, once taxes and duties are excluded, the difference rises to 50 percent. TweetShare
BVI got more foreign investment in 2013 than Brazil and India combined – UN
The British Virgin Islands (BVI) are back in the news. Last week the islands featured at the centre of a huge story about corruption in China. This week’s story concerns UNCTAD’s latest estimates of foreign direct investment flows through companies registered in the BVI. As Reuters reports: TweetShare
TJN’s Offshore Wrapper: The week in tax justice
Welcome to TJN’s weekly Offshore Wrapper. This week, rumours of a tax evasion amnesty in Italy and the US looks to reopen the door to tax evasion. The Spanish speaking world gets tough on corporate tax avoidance and “Chinaleaks” hits the Chinese elite. TweetShare
New Job: Campaigns and Communications Officer
Our campaigns partner, the Global Alliance for Tax Justice, is advertising for a new post: campaigns and communications officer: TweetShare
Guinea: A slow death facilitated by lawyers, accountants and financial advisers
The Guardian has posted a comment from Guinean President, Alpha Condé, currently in Davos at the 2014 World Economic Forum. He gets straight to business in his first paragraph: “As president of Guinea I know we can’t tackle this problem alone – corruption is embedded in the western institutions that have helped bleed our country dry.” We urge you to
Read the full article…Occupy London: February 2014 tour programme
February 2014 programme Forget Jack the Ripper and the London Dungeons, we show you the murky side of the capital’s more recent past. Occupy London Tours is a free alternative tour company, run by volunteers, who want to throw open the secretive world of finance and politics for all to see. TweetShare
Swiss double tax agreements disadvantage poorer countries
Our attention has been drawn to a fascinating new report (sadly, in German only, an English language summary is here) on Switzerland’s double tax agreements (DTAs) with developing countries. Interestingly, although the report was produced by researchers from the renowned World Trade Institute at the University of Bern, the underlying study was commissioned by the development agency of the Swiss
Read the full article…The Taxcast: January 2014 – Edition 25
In the January 2014 Taxcast: Tax justice goes to the Cayman Islands; the latest fall-out from #OffshoreLeaks, the expose on tax havens from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists; and HOW much is Africa spending on corporate tax breaks??? The Taxcast looks at tax incentives, Africa-style. TweetShare
Outrage at Bermuda and Jersey removal from French blacklist
According to Mediapart the French government is under fire, again, this time over its decision to remove both Bermuda and Jersey from its blacklist of uncooperative tax havens. Senior members of the government, including foreign affairs minister Laurent Fabius, are reported to be opposed to their removal. Mediapart reports that Fabius has advised finance minister Pierre Moscovici that these removals
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