About Nick Shaxson
Tax havens: beyond illicit financial flows
Capital flows, tax havens and offshore secrecy A guest post by Prof. Sol Picciotto, a TJN Senior Adviser. This was first published in African Agenda, vol. 18 No. 2, published June 2015 The discussion of the Mbeki Panel report in the last issue of African Agenda, in both the Editorial and the article by Tetteh Hormeku, rightly drew attention to the
Read the full article…First global week of action for tax justice hits 43 countries
Calling for sustainable government funding for vital public services and an end to corporate tax dodging, members of the world’s largest labour, NGO and faith organizations have united across borders in the first ever Global Week of Action for #TaxJustice, June 16-23, 2015. On the ground public and social media actions have happened in more than 43 countries. (Please also
Read the full article…Cayman papers in rare, savage attacks on UK and financial sector
Update: this post is now on Naked Capitalism. Update 2: cop a couple of interesting comments under this blog, including further reading. Not long after a newspaper editor critical of local financial sector corruption fled the Cayman Islands, followed by apparent “tombstones” death threats, another brave journalist with the Cayman Reporter has published a fiery editorial, which rings true to many of the things
Read the full article…New IMF research: tax affects inequality; inequality affects growth
This new graph from the IMF is just the latest piece of research that follows on from the in-depth work of Thomas Piketty and others looking at the relationship between top income tax rates and inequality. The graph here makes the point adequately. Put crudely, the lower the top tax rate, the more inequality will rise. The IMF discussion note is called Causes
Read the full article…The Tax Justice Network Podcast, June 2015
June 2015 Tax Justice Network Podcast: TweetShare
New OECD report backs TJN’s Finance Curse research
A new report from the OECD (hat tip: Dan Hind) contributes to what is now accepted wisdom in finance-and-growth circles: too much finance is bad for you. Our Finance Curse analysis explores this in detail. This blog is merely a pointer to the OECD study published a few days ago, which states: “The empirical evidence for OECD countries over the
Read the full article…Exposed: $43 million tax dodge in world’s poorest country
From ActionAid, another excellent investigation into a corporate tax dodge in Malawi, which on some measures is the world’s poorest country: Today [June 17] we’ve released an investigation into an Australian mining company called Paladin, operating in Malawi – the world’s poorest country. We found that through using complex corporate structures and negotiating a huge tax break, over the last 6
Read the full article…10 Reasons Why an Intergovernmental UN Tax Body Will Benefit Everyone
We have written for years about how the OECD, a club of rich countries has dominated the international tax system and that this inevitably skews the system in the favour of, well, rich countries. A potentially far more representative body exists — the UN Tax Committee — but the OECD and its member states have exerted powerful pressure to restrict its mandate and powers and to
Read the full article…Sign on! Lima Declaration on Tax Justice and Human Rights
Via the Global Alliance for Tax Justice: Organisations are now invited to endorse the Lima Declaration on Tax Justice and Human Rights. TweetShare
Juncker’s hidden hand? EU tax haven blacklist omits Luxembourg
We have often remarked how international tax haven blacklists generally reflect the political powers and influence of nation states; as a result they tend to include ‘minnows’ but not the big fish. (Among other things, this means a lot of econometric studies resting on a baseline of nonsense.) TweetShare
Indonesia: Financial Transparency Conference, Jakarta, October
From the Financial Transparency Coalition, of which TJN is a member: Register and FAQ here. TweetShare
Corporate tax and the OECD: joint statement to the G20
The BEPS Monitoring Group (BMG), a body supported by TJN and led by TJN Senior Adviser Sol Picciotto, is a civil society body monitoring the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. BEPS is fancy OECD-speak for ‘international corporate tax dodging’. The platform has now produced a new joint statement, alongside our partners at the Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ): TweetShare
The politics of country-by-country reporting
A new post by Alex Cobham, TJN’s Research Director, at Uncounted. It’s called, as our headline suggests, The politics of country-by-country reporting. In summary, the sections note: TweetShare
Juncker invites himself to Luxleaks hearing
This blog looks at a report from EurActiv about the so-called Luxleaks probes, which are looking at whether multinational companies using Luxembourg schemes (involving so-called ‘tax rulings’) violated European rules. Jean-Claude Juncker is not only head of the European Commission, but former premier of Luxembourg. Euractiv reports that the tax rulings committee had sought to interview European Commisioner Pierre Moscovici, but it didn’t quite work out
Read the full article…Are the G7 really suggesting compulsory arbitration on international tax disputes?
Christian Aid sent us this email yesterday, and it’s a shocker. Back in 2013, the G7 made some pretty strong commitments to tax justice, and we said then we’d be watching them carefully to see if they’d deliver. Well, on this evidence, they haven’t: quite the opposite, in fact. It is worth reproducing Christian Aid’s press release in full: TweetShare
