About Nick Shaxson
Quote of the day – Africa hit by global tax intrigues
Here’s our quote of the day, via the Financial Transparency Coalition: “African nations are at the epicenter of the crisis of illicit financial flows, yet they are not even in the room when decisions are being made,” said Alvin Mosioma, Executive Director of the Tax Justice Network Africa. “A global tax body is one important step in fixing this global
Read the full article…UK parliament: stop money laundering through UK property
More precisely, what is known as an Early Day Motion, so far signed by 20 UK MPs: “That this House notes the recent screening of From Russia with Cash on Channel 4; expresses its concern that the proceeds of corruption are being laundered through the London property market via the use of anonymous offshore companies; and recommends that corporate transparency
Read the full article…Did NGOs invent a pot of gold? (No.)
By Alex Cobham, our research director: first posted at Uncounted. A draft paper by Maya Forstater, circulated by the Center for Global Development in time for the Financing for Development conference in Addis, attacks the integrity of many people and NGOs working on tax justice and illicit financial flows. The claims include: TweetShare
Call for papers on Gender, Development, and Fiscal/Economic Equality
FemLaw [a collaborative research network of the Law and Society Association (LSA)] is seeking expressions of interest in presenting papers in its program at two interdisciplinary international conferences being sponsored by the Law and Society Association: the New Orleans LSA conference (June 2-5, 2016) and the Mexico City International Conference on Law and Society (June 20-23, 2017). TweetShare
Quote of the day: City of London and the drugs trade
Fresh from our brief discussion of the explosive documentary From Russia with Cash, we have a quote of the day from Roberto Saviano, an expert on the Italian crime organisation Camorra, via The Indendent: “The British treat it as not their problem because there aren’t corpses on the street.” TweetShare
From Russia with cash: the London laundry exposed
From Britain’s Channel 4, a superb exposé of Britain’s high-end property circus market and the willingness of sellers to accept money from all sources, no matter how dubious. It is hilarious and ghastly, at the same time. This is money stolen from some of the world’s poorest people, going into luxury property in London (and, by the way, also squeezing
Read the full article…Fake residency: the yawning loophole the OECD must close
The OECD’s Common Reporting Standards (CRS) is the big game in town for curbing cross-border financial transparency. As we’ve often noted, it is a good project, with global reach, but with loopholes. One of the biggest of these loopholes, perhaps — after Loophole USA — is the problem of ‘fake residency’, where countries allow wealthy people from elsewhere to “buy” their way into being residents of that
Read the full article…IMF: US isn’t doing enough to curb financial secrecy
From Agence France Presse: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday that the United States was moving too slowly to prevent the use of shell and front companies to hide ownership. TweetShare
New US study lends support to Financial Transaction Tax
A new report from the Tax Policy Center (TPC), a U.S. nonpartisan joint project of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, looks at the potential revenue yields from a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) and how the burden of the tax would fall on the U.S. population. It also notes that the FTT concept has a long and venerable history, going
Read the full article…Stop the bleeding: new African tax justice campaign
Via the Global Alliance for Tax Justice: Last week the Interim Working Group of the African IFF Campaign Platform launched the “Stop the Bleeding” campaign in Uhuru park, a place historically associated with the struggle for freedom in Nairobi, Kenya. TweetShare
The sorry tale of the offshore wheeler-dealer
Every now and then, a court case comes up that gives curious insight into the offshore world of tax havens. This rather sad tale is quite suggestive of the mindset that one so often finds offshore. “The level of conflict between these parents is shameful. They can take credit for having two lovely children but their current behaviour is making their children
Read the full article…Guest blog: how Switzerland corrupted its courts to nail Rudolf Elmer
Update, Oct 10, 2018 – Swiss top court knocks down bid to extend banking secrecy. Good news for Elmer, following his partial victory in 2016. Update, Jan 4, 2016: Elmer has won a partial victory, underlining the main point of this blog. In a civil suit brought by Elmer, the Swiss Federal Court has overturned one of the rulings against him because,
Read the full article…Quote of the day: JFK and secrecy
The quote is from John F. Kennedy, speaking in 1961 (hat tip: the Cayman Reporter): “The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts
Read the full article…Tax Justice Research Bulletin 1(6)
June 2015. Surprising everyone by actually arriving within the stated month, here’s the sixth Tax Justice Research Bulletin – a monthly series dedicated to tracking the latest developments in policy-relevant research on national and international tax, available in full over at TJN. This issue looks at a new paper in The Lancet on the potential links between direct taxation and
Read the full article…Runways expansion: a curious tax haven link
There are a number of ways in which the interests of environmental groups align with those of the tax justice community. Here’s a curious one, showing how lobbyists against the expansion of major airports in Britain could wield a tax haven tool in their defence. A new Airports Commission will soon publish its report on the next steps for aviation in Britain, and whether Britain
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