About Nick Shaxson
Ukraine’s dirty money: the Cambridge University connection
Update: the Daily Mail covers our story here. It seems that Britain’s Cambridge University hasn’t learned anything from the London School of Economics (LSE). The LSE was red faced in 2011 when it was revealed that they had received millions from the Gadhafi regime. The scandal led to a resignation of the LSE’s director Howard Davis, and an independent investigation
Read the full article…Secrecy jurisdictions already aiming at loopholes in OECD project
We have been rather complimentary recently about the OECD’s emerging project to deliver automatic information exchange globally. It contains many positive (and important elements), but we also noted some shortcomings. One of the loopholes we noted was: “It is increasingly easy for individuals to move residency elsewhere, as more jurisdictions offer easy residency packages. This could be another way to escape reporting.”
Read the full article…A small but telling victory in London’s offshore housing crisis
Guest blog by George Turner One to the most pronounced and damaging impacts of offshore finance in London is the housing crisis. In London a home is no longer a home, but an investment product. The offshore system allows questionable money from all over the world to be effectively laundered through the UK property market. Despite government attempts to rein in the excesses of
Read the full article…Putin, the U.S. and the City of London: The Much-Too-Special-Relationship
From the New York Times, an article by former Moscow mayoral candidate Alexey Navalny that begins with the words “As I write this, I am under house arrest.” He argues: “Western nations could deliver a serious blow to the luxurious lifestyles enjoyed by the Kremlin’s cronies who shuttle between Russia and the West. This means freezing the oligarchs’ financial assets
Read the full article…Guest blog: should Argentina sign a tax treaty with Switzerland?
Not long ago we published a Switzerland edition of our newsletter Tax Justice Focus, in which a contributor wrote: “Developing countries wanting OECD-type tax agreements with Switzerland risk being forced into tax concessions on Swiss foreign investments, in exchange for information sharing on tax evaders.” And the quality of the information they were likely to receive in exchange for those
Read the full article…UK government believes in country by country reporting. Or does it?
From an exchange in the UK parliament, via Tax Research, the UK Exchequer Secretary David Gauke: “A year or so ago I had a meeting at Euston tower with the HMRC [the UK tax authorities] officials who deal with transfer pricing matters. They said it would help them to have a relatively simple form to provide information about the companies
Read the full article…New campaign: End Anonymous Companies
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Top US senators urge extradition of Swiss bankers
From U.S. Senator Carl Levin: WASHINGTON – The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations today urged the Department of Justice to seek extradition of Swiss residents whom the DOJ has charged with tax evasion offenses. TweetShare
The tax justice app is now available – and it’s free
We are delighted to report that the tax justice network now has its own app, for the Android system. It is free, simple, and packed with all the latest news, views and analysis from around the world. You can find it by searching the Google Play store, or download it here. An Apple iOS version will be available shortly. TweetShare
One Direction get tax justice. Or do they?
A few days ago we were delighted to read an article about the enormously influential UK band One Direction, which began like this. “George Osborne [the UK Chancellor] can expect a bombardment from One Direction fans after the boyband urged its army of followers to lobby the Chancellor to maintain the UK’s international aid budget and crack down on corporate tax avoidance.
Read the full article…Scientific revolutions and the tax justice consensus
From a book review in The Economist: “(the author) cites Thomas Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions. First, the existing models are proved wrong by the facts. Second, the experts try to adjust the theory to account for the anomalies, leading to ever-greater complexity. Third, a new theory is put forward that throws away the existing framework. Fourth, the theory is
Read the full article…How advertising works: joined up thinking at The Economist
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Quote of the day: inequality
From Shifting Grounds, our quote of the day: “New political eras begin when the ideas that define them are embraced by those most reluctant to accept their logic.” The quote is about inequality – but it could just as well be about tax justice. TweetShare
New report: OECD’s new info exchange standard a watershed moment?
A month ago we published a short, quick reaction to a new report by the OECD, outlining the nuts and bolts of a major new international system for information exchange. We have now spent quite some time exploring the OECD’s report, and have written a much more detailed response. Our new report is entitled OECD’s Automatic Information Exchange Standard: A
Read the full article…“We are not a tax haven.” They all say that
This is slightly updated version of a blog we wrote a while ago: a useful reminder of the theatre of probity that tax havens employ to try and appear clean. This blogger used to live in South Africa, not long after the end of Apartheid, where one of the common refrains he heard was “I am not a racist, but
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