About Nick Shaxson
TJN sparring partner caught up in Panama Papers scandal
Back in 2005 a lobby group in Washington, D.C. issued a press release entitled Tax Justice Network Sides with Europe’s Tax Collectors, Ignores Critical Role of Low-Tax Jurisdiction in Protecting Human Rights and Promoting Pro-Growth Policy. The bizarre press release accused us of putting at risk the lives of “Jews in France, or homosexuals in Saudi Arabia” because . . . well, read
Read the full article…Now Luxembourg, Switzerland are working to bolster Tax Haven USA
Update: making clear that the Swiss text we cited is a provisional test. As we’ve often said before, it is counterproductive (and an analytical error) to see the fight against tax havens in purely geographical terms. When the U.S. Justice Department started taking action against Swiss bankers, this was not a battle between Switzerland and the United States: it was a battle pitting wealthy,
Read the full article…New tools for tax policies and human rights
From Righting Finance: The connection between civil and political rights and tax policy is so strong, that in a 2014 report on tax policy and human rights (“the report”), the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights in 2014 said that the link runs both ways. That is, civil and political rights bear consequences for tax policy. But
Read the full article…More sordid details about the Luxembourg tax cheat factory
If you read one story today, read this, from Private Eye. A couple of small excerpts reveal the extent to which tax havens like Luxembourg are ‘captured states”: Applications for the favourable rulings, Halet told the court, were sent every Wednesday at 1.30pm in batches of 30 to 40 and returned to PwC, stamped and approved, at 5pm. The applications,
Read the full article…The false promise of tax haven blacklists
From Eurodad: This week, European Union finance ministers agreed to establish a common EU blacklist of so-called “non-cooperative jurisdictions” – in other words, tax havens. With one tax scandal unfolding after the other, listing and sanctioning tax havens may seem like a good solution. However, as tempting as it may sound, this EU exercise is doomed to fail – and here’s why.
Read the full article…Quote of the day – London and money laundering
From London’s new mayor, Sadiq Khan: “I have got nothing against luxury properties being built in London. What we can’t have is London being the world’s capital for money laundering.” Ten years ago, who could have predicted this kind of comment? See more here. Just for instance. TweetShare
Automatic Information Exchange is not the answer!
June 7: We’ve updated this blog, to make changes to the beginning of the article, which required some clarification. Recently the British, German, French, Italian and Spanish finance ministries issued a statement in which they said: “We commit to establishing as soon as possible registers or other mechanisms requiring that beneficial owners of companies, trusts, foundations, shell companies and other relevant entities and
Read the full article…New Research Shows Millionaires Less Mobile than the Rest of Us
From Citizens for Tax Justice, a blog that’s worth reproducing in full, as yet more useful ammunition to wheel out against those who keep banging on about tax cuts and so-called ‘competitiveness.’ New Research Shows Millionaires Less Mobile than the Rest of Us A new study (PDF) released today provides the best evidence yet that progressive state income taxes are
Read the full article…Want to end corruption? Crack down on tax havens.
That headline comes from an opinion piece just in the Washington Post, written by Nicholas Shaxson, a TJN writer. Among other things, it’s searching for deeper understandings of corruption that capture its systemic effects on rules, systems and institutions. “Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe points toward a better, more systemic definition of corruption in his 1983 classic, “The Trouble with Nigeria”:
Read the full article…Liberia’s mysterious company registry system
Our friends and colleagues at Finance Uncovered have written a fascinating story entitled Liberia: America’s outpost of financial secrecy, which has been published today in South Africa’s Daily Maverick in cooperation with AmaBhungane. We’d urge you to read the whole fascinating story of skulduggery and mystery on this little-understood African tax haven. But here are a couple of small tidbits, as tasters: “Some of the
Read the full article…Three lessons on the hidden cost of corruption – for the West
A guest blog by Sigrún Davíðsdóttir Corruption and corrupt business practices have often been portrayed as a problem only endured by poor countries, of little consequence to the developed West. The three following stories show that this is a wrong-headed, old-fashioned understanding, reflecting earlier times when corruption was poorly understood. By now, we should all know better. The first story
Read the full article…Mauritius: India cracks down on a major tax evasion route
Update on this story available below on more recent developments India cracks down on a major tax evasion route A guest blog by Abdul Muheet Chowdhary The issue My award winning essay, written for a competition jointly held by the Tax Justice Network and Oxfam International, focused on how India is unable to meet its child rights obligations as it loses a
Read the full article…New report exposes flaws in global and EU anti-money laundering rules and explains how they can be fixed
Update: Part 2 is here. As the political dust settles on the Panama papers and the anti-corruption summit, the focus is now moving to concrete solutions. In June 2016 the European Union is expected to review its anti-money laundering directive, including controversial rules on the beneficial ownership of companies. The Tax Justice Network has identified significant loopholes that jeopardise the
Read the full article…Britain’s secrecy web: no corpses on the street, no problem
On the occasion of a global anti-corruption summit in London, Tom Burgis has written a superb long investigation into the City of London for the Financial Times — read it, if you can get a copy. As a teaser: “For Andrea, the contrast between the American and British responses to BSI’s activities was striking. A 2002 UK statute obliges anyone who suspects they
Read the full article…Support grows for our withholding tax policy against Tax Haven USA
From the former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, writing in The UK’s Guardian newspaper: “In addition to a comprehensive European blacklist of tax havens as the first step to a global blacklist, we should agree that British overseas territories and crown dependencies that fail to comply cannot be excluded from the blacklist; and the UK should now require them to
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