Michael Winterbottom's powerful new film, The Emperor's New Clothes, starring comedian Russell Brand and featuring several prominent tax justice campaigners is screening in cinemas now. You can also organise your own film screening here. … [Read more...]
Blog
HSBC whistleblower Falciani, on tax havens and whistleblowing
This video comes from The Guardian: "HSBC files whistleblower Hervé Falciani: 'This money comes from mafia, http://premier-pharmacy.com/product-category/anti-inflammatories/ drug traffickers, blood diamonds and tax evasion' " Alternatively, you can watch it here. … [Read more...]
Working people pay taxes – corporations must pay their share!
Public service trade unions and the Global Alliance for Tax Justice invite members to join in marching this May Day under the banner “Working people pay taxes – corporations must pay their share!” … [Read more...]
Transfer pricing: what developing countries are doing, China edition
Last December Krishen Mehta wrote us a longish article entitled Developing Countries and Tax - Ten Ways Forward. It outlines a series of measures that developing countries can consider as they seek to curb tax cheating by multinational corporations. This blog is really just a pointer to an article … [Read more...]
Links Apr 24
Shock at Luxembourg’s decision to charge LuxLeaks reporter Reporters Without Borders Responsible Tax Practice by Companies: A Mapping and Review of Current Proposals ActionAid Towards a Common African Position on Financing for Development: Governments and Civil Society Debate in Addis Ababa … [Read more...]
How to make tax systems more environmentally sustainable
Update: head of Glencore calls for all fossil fuel subsidies to be phased out. (There's a catch, but we can simply ignore the catch.) In January we wrote an article entitled Do not listen to Big Oil's whining for tax cuts. It contained a lot of generic reasons not to shower tax subsidies on … [Read more...]
The Tax Justice Network podcast, April 2015
In the April 2015 Tax Justice Network podcast: How just are our tax systems towards women? A Taxcast chat with award-winning filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, about his new Russell Brand film The Emperor's New Clothes. Plus: one of the US' biggest corporations (and tax avoiders) is repatriating … [Read more...]
Links Apr 23
Luxembourg court charges French journalist over LuxLeaks role Reuters See also: Charges against #LuxLeaks reporter by Luxembourg authorities threaten press freedom ICIJ, Luxembourg court charges LuxLeaks journalist EU Business, and recent ICIJ article by Edouard Perrin ‘This story is global, it … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice #58
Former IMF chief arrested for tax fraud The former head of the IMF, Rodrigo Rato, has been arrested in Spain over claims that he has illegally hidden wealth offshore to evade taxes. … [Read more...]
Tax competitiveness: was Charles Tiebout joking?
From the Fools' Gold project on 'competitiveness': Do nations or states ‘compete’ with each other in a meaningful way? We have already explored the thinking of Paul Krugman, Adam Smith, Robert Reich, and the Tax Justice Network on this question. Their answers are, to summarise broadly: ‘no – or at … [Read more...]
The Rumble Down Under: democracy v multinationals in Australia
This is just one part of what one might call the 'mega-capture' of political processes, around the world, by the Big Four accountancy firms. … [Read more...]
How Swiss banks moved their evasion experts to Latin America
An interview with Swiss banking whistleblower Stéphanie Gibaud in the Buenos Aires Herald (hat tip: Jorge Gaggero). It's fascinating. We'll post just a couple of excerpts here, and advise readers to look at the whole thing. For instance: "I did public relations for the bank, which means you … [Read more...]
The deep joy of trusts and foundations
We aren't sure whether to be horrified, flattered or entertained. Take a look at this peculiar video from a rather iffy-looking offshore promoter, complete with '80s soundtrack and faux newsroom. If you go to the original source of this video, it turns out that they are explicitly using TJN … [Read more...]
Report: a proposal to adopt unitary tax in Israel
From TJN Israel, a new report entitled A Proposal to Adopt a Reform in Taxing Multinational Corporations in Israel - Unitary Taxation. The summary is here, in English, and the longer report, in Hebrew, is here. The report explores why Israel's existing tax regime has difficulties in combating … [Read more...]
Report: parties rely on unsafe top tax estimates in UK election
Tax is one of the key battlegrounds in the UK’s general election due on May 7. No tax is more important than the income tax, and debates about the wisdom of cutting or hiking the top rate of income tax seem likely to heat up as polling nears. Some political parties advocate raising the top tax … [Read more...]
