About John Christensen
Nigel Lawson, not the corporate income tax, has had his day
Responding to the UK government’s poor handling of tax negotiations with Google, Nigel Lawson, climate change denier and architect of one of the biggest boom-bust recessions of modern history, has told the Daily Telegraph that the corporate income tax has “had its day”. Instead he proposes a “much” lower rate with a tax on corporate sales. TweetShare
TJN calls on EC to investigate all of the UK’s secret tax deals
Here is the text of a letter of complaint that TJN will be handing in to the European Commission at its office in London this afternoon. On 23rd January 2016 the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, tweeted from Davos that the UK Government had struck a deal with Google over its past tax liabilities. The deal was disclosed
Read the full article…Taxing Google (and Facebook, Twitter, Uber and the rest)
Guest blog from TJN senior adviser Professor Sol Picciotto The announcement of the deal struck by Google with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has aroused much speculation. The term ‘permanent establishment’ has even been mentioned in some august media outlets, such as the Financial Times. These are waters which have been deliberately muddied, so let’s see if we can
Read the full article…2016 Tax Justice and Human Rights Essay Competition
Tax Justice Network and Oxfam are joining together to launch a tax justice and human rights essay competition for legal students and professionals. With tax justice rising up the human rights agenda, we want to hear your ideas on how human rights law can be used in the fight against tax dodging. TweetShare
Conference: No Taxes, No Development – Berlin, 18th February 2016
Conference No taxes, no development Ways to a just taxation of multinational corporations TweetShare
The Offshore Game: Bolton Wanderers on the brink
This sad story, featuring a company registered in the British Virgin Islands and an offshore trust in Bermuda, is cross-posted from our partners at The Offshore Game. TweetShare
New Oxfam report: An Economy For the 1% – and how to reform it
In a new report on inequality, published today, Oxfam reveals that the richest one percent of the global population now owns more wealth that the rest of the world combined. In 2015, just 62 people had more wealth than the poorest half of the world’s population, TweetShare
Call for Papers – Research Workshop on Corruption and Tax Havens, London, April 2016
Call for papers for a Research Workshop on CORRUPTION AND THE ROLE OF TAX HAVENS City University London, 28th / 29th April 2016 In May 2016 the U.K Government will be hosting a global summit on corruption. Ahead of this event, the Association for Accountancy & Business Affairs,(i) City University, (ii) and the Tax Justice Network, (iii) are organising a
Read the full article…The Offshore Wrapper – a week in tax justice #71
Only in Belgium The European Commission has written to Belgium, ordering that country to collect an extra €700m in taxes from at least 35 multi-national companies. The letter is the latest move by the European Commission to use its power over the European single market to clamp down on tax avoiding multinationals. TweetShare
Venezuela’s rampant corruption
This guest blog from Alek Boyd explores what happens when oil, offshore financial secrecy and populist politics combine to corrupt the hopes of an entire nation. When the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published leaked HSBC data provided by Hervé Falciani in February this year, something rather odd became public: Venezuela had the third largest amount of money ($14.8B) held
Read the full article…Will Sri Lanka follow the dismal road to tax havenry?
An article in today’s edition of Sri Lanka’s Mirror newspaper draws attention to that island’s plans to develop an offshore financial centre in Colombo. According to the article the proposal is modelled on the Dubai International Financial Centre, a notorious centre for moneylaundering and illicit financial flows. TweetShare
New website shows European countries that facilitate tax cheating
PRESS RELEASE FROM SOMO: Mapping Tax-free investments New interactive website shows which European countries facilitate tax dodging through mailbox companies. Today, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) launches a new interactive website that visualises bilateral investments of European countries. A new comparison between UNCTAD and IMF data illustrates the scale of tax avoidance through mailbox companies and selected
Read the full article…The Finance Curse and Competitiveness: presentation at Max Planck Institute
This is the text of a lecture that John Christensen, Director of the Tax Justice Network (TJN), gave at the Max Planck Institute in Cologne this week. TweetShare
COP21 – TJN statement to the Citizen’s Climate Summit in Paris
TJN participated at the Citizen’s Climate Summit in Paris this weekend. TJN’s director John Christensen spoke at a rally in Montreuil where this statement on financing the social and ecological transition was agreed by an assembly of 196 civil society representatives TweetShare
