About Nick Shaxson
Swiss to vote on “millionaires’ tax.” Cue scare stories
On November 30 Swiss people will vote in a referendum on the so-called “lump-sum taxation” system, a preferential tax regime for certain wealthy foreigners who are resident in Switzerland but don’t work there. To simplify, the 5,000-odd people who qualify for this special tax regime get taxed according to their living and spending costs in Switzerland, rather than on their income. It is
Read the full article…California’s tax hikes versus Kansas’ tax cuts: early results now in
From a new paper by Paul Caron of Pepperdine University and Joseph Bankman of Stanford University: “The conventional wisdom in California two years ago was that raising taxes on the wealthy would harm the economy and doom any politician who dared touch this third rail. Instead, the public embraced this approach at the ballot box and, after enjoying the fruits of
Read the full article…Patent boxes: progress, or more racing to the bottom?
We’ve written quite a bit about patent boxes in the last few days. A Patent Box is a tax incentive that reduces effective corporation tax rates on income attributable to patents, subject to certain conditions. We at TJN think they are generally a terrible idea. In two patent box blogs last week (here and here) UK tax barrister David Quentin and others
Read the full article…The OECD’s corporate tax project: a remake of an old film?
This isn’t a guest blog but something a little similar: a substantial section translated from an important Thomsonreuters article in Spanish by Antonio Figeroa, a former president of the UN Tax Committee and a top Argentine tax official. The headline is ours. Why is the OECD only now cracking down on corporate tax abuses? What has happened for the G20 to decide to confront
Read the full article…Global Investor Groups Support Tax Justice and Transparency
From Corporate Governance, a news release basically taking a series of core tax justice positions ahead of the G20 summit meeting in Brisbane this weekend: Investors Back Global Tax Reform and Transparency In a global first, a group of institutional asset owners and managers are jointly calling for comprehensive transparency and disclosure to be adopted as core principles in reform
Read the full article…SPERI: The Finance Curse as New Grand Narrative
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New reports on OECD and developing countries: progress, but far to go
A couple of days ago the OECD published a document called The BEPS Project and Developing Countries: from Consultation to Participation which has three key elements: first, inviting ten developing countries to participate directly in its Committee on Fiscal Affairs and subsidiary bodies; second, to create of five regionally focused and organised networks of tax policy & administration officials; and third, to support capacity
Read the full article…Report: a third of French banks’ foreign subsidiaries are in tax havens
From the French platform on tax havens Plateforme Paradis Fiscaux et Judiciaires, coordinated by CCFD-Terre Solidaire and Secours Catholique Caritas France, a new report looking at the first figures published by French banks this year, under requirements for country by country reporting. Congratulations to our French colleagues for gaining widespread media coverage in France, and for their role in pushing the French government
Read the full article…The UK Patent box – will it come back in through the back door, accompanied by Germany?
We’ve just written a blog about the UK’s nasty, disingenuous and hypocritical patent box regime, and how it has successfully been spun as a “watering down” of the rules under pressure from Germany. The blog points out that the joint UK-German announcement, which is quite short, is cryptic. It explicitly states that “IP regimes” (which is what patent boxes are) are out: well and
Read the full article…Goodbye UK Patent Box – don’t let the door hit you on your way out
Updated with substantial and important analysis at the bottom, which raises a new and crucial question about whether the world’s media has swallowed a load of spin: Last month two TJN-related authors, David Quentin and Nicholas Shaxson, had a piece on the Naked Capitalism site entitled The “Patent Box” – Proof That the UK is a Rogue State in Corporate Tax. The article was based on an
Read the full article…Hidden Profits: The EU’s role in supporting an unjust global tax system 2014
From Eurodad, an important new report, whose press release goes: Hidden Profits: The EU’s role in supporting an unjust global tax system 2014 This report – the second in a series of three annual reports – brings together civil society organisations (CSOs) in 15 countries across the EU. Experts in each CSO have examined their national governments’ commitments and actions towards combatting tax dodging
Read the full article…Warning: tax havens getting ready to wriggle out of global transparency initiatives
We’ve written a lot about new international standards on transparency that are coming through: technically and politically, they are a vast improvement on a terrible situation – notably the commitment to automatic information exchange – but there’s much still to be desired. TweetShare
Unions Push for Tax Responsibility in Pension Funds
From the International Trade Union Confederation: Nov 9, 2014 – Trade unions have unveiled a new initiative to tackle global tax evasion by integrating tax risks into responsible investment policies in pension funds worth over $20trillion where unions and their trustees are involved in fund governance. TweetShare
Tweet of the day: Jean-Claude Juncker needs to go
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