About Nick Shaxson
Greek shipowners and the competitiveness threat
There’s a threat hanging over the Greek government. And it’s been hanging there for decades. An important new special report by Reuters’ Tom Bergin contains this: “That’s the way Greek shipowners like it. The magnates who run one of the biggest merchant marine fleets in the world have long argued that if Greece tried to tax them, they would leave –
Read the full article…Our Spanish podcast is out! Salió nuestro podcast en Castellano
Justicia ImPositiva, Edición 4. En la cuarta edición de Justicia ImPositiva revelamos cuáles son los proveedores más significativos en la actividad financiera mundial opaca, así como los impactos y las sorpresas de los resultados del nuevo Índice de Secreto Financiero 2015, publicado este mes por Tax Justice Network. ¿Te gustaría saber dónde ha quedado tu país en la lista? También
Read the full article…New report: tax treaties in sub-Saharan Africa
Via Martin Hearson’s website, here is a new report he authored for Tax Justice Network-Africa. As Hearson says, it’s based on field research done a year ago and has been a little while getting into print. Here’s a link to read it online at academia.edu Here’s a link to download the PDF Among many other things, the report highlights the extent to
Read the full article…Short animation: tax is paid by everyone, for everyone
From TJN-Israel and law students at Israel’s College of Law and Business, an excellent short animation reminding people of the roles that tax plays in civilised society. Enjoy. TweetShare
The Norwegian shareholder registry: now open for all
The Norwegian Shareholder Registry now open for all A guest blog by Sigrid Klæboe Jacobsen, Director, TJN-Norge Two programmers from an IT company, acting on their own initiative, spent a weekend doing the job that the Government hasn’t wanted to do: they have made it possible for anyone to search the Norwegian Shareholders Registry. You can now search all Norwegian shareholders
Read the full article…Colombia and civil war: the role of tax
A guest blog By Thomas Mortensen, with thanks. A bilateral ceasefire is due in Colombia in the coming weeks, hopefully December 16th. Tax is not the most obvious remedy for civil war but in the case of Colombia, it could go a long way. The country has suffered an internal armed conflict for more than 50 years, which has left 7
Read the full article…The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice #71
Now that’s what I call a Big Tax Case A long running court case that has become known as the ‘Big Tax Case’ appears to be reaching a conclusion. It involves Scottish football club Rangers, who went bust in 2012. After it failed, a new company was created. It bought the assets of Rangers, hired many of same players under
Read the full article…Britain can force its tax havens to curb secrecy. But will it?
Jolyon Maugham, a UK tax barrister, has written a useful blog looking at promises the UK coalition government made before the last election about getting its offshore satellites to curb financial secrecy — and then he has compared those promises to the actions that have been taken since then. Do read the whole short blog, but the conclusion is: “What’s happened? . .
Read the full article…Who ultimately pays the corporate income tax? (Again.)
We have written many times about the ‘incidence’ (or, if you like) burden of the corporate income tax. When you tax corporations, who ultimately pays it: the workers, through lower wages? The consumers, through higher prices? Or is it the shareholders and owners of capital? It’s a crucial question. Defenders of wealth and entrenched privilege love to argue that it’s ‘workers’ who
Read the full article…Crickhowell and the tax rebellion: the mouse that roared?
Update: the Crickhowell activists have set up a new website: Fair Tax Town. We’re delighted to see that a forthcoming BBC TV programme will highlight a major tax injustice that we have long drawn attention to: that multinational corporations are killing small businesses partly by being able to out-dodge them on tax. Britain’s Independent newspaper reports: “When independent traders in a small Welsh
Read the full article…How Ireland became an offshore financial centre
This month we published our fourth Financial Secrecy Index (FSI), complete with a series of reports about each of the biggest tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions, looking into the political and economic histories of how and why they went offshore, who was involved, and where the bodies are buried. The one report that wasn’t ready on publication date last week was Ireland. Now, finally, here it
Read the full article…Still Broken: major new report on global corporate tax cheating
Update, Dec 7, 2015: a new paper in the Journal of World Business, which contains this: “Home country statutory corporate tax rates have a small impact on tax haven use. In general, corporate tax rates are an important factor in driving MNEs to set up tax haven subsidiaries. However, as long as there is a significant gap between tax
Read the full article…Guest blog: sun, sea, sand, tourism and fantasy finance
Where are you going on your next holiday? The chances are if you are flying to a Sun&Sea destination, it will be with a tax-dodging company. A guest blog by Linda Ambrosie. Listen to her on the Taxcast here. Do you recognize any of these names: Barceló, TUI or Melía?. In English-speaking countries, these names may not be familiar. How
Read the full article…UK and China: the national security threat from the City of London
In March we wrote a short article (also discussed in our Taxcast) about the U.S.’ ire about what US officials said was Britain’s ‘constant accommodation’ with China.” That followed an earlier article a TJN blogger wrote in The American Interest about Russia and the City of London. In both cases we pointed squarely to the ‘offshore’-focused City of London as the source of the trouble:
Read the full article…Leaked documents: how Luxembourg, Netherlands have blocked EU tax reforms
From Sven Giegold, without comment: The Netherlands and Luxembourg prevented progress on EU measures aimed at preventing tax dumping for years, according to leaked minutes of a Council working group being reported in the German media today (1). The documents on which the articles are based are precisely those documents to which the European Parliament’s special committee investigating tax issues
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