Argentina tax chief Ricardo Etchegaray met with Swiss Ambassador La Nacion (In Spanish) Hat tip: Jorge Gaggero - the "tax cosmetics" continue. See also recent Guest blog: Should Argentina sign a tax treaty with Switzerland? … [Read more...]
Blog
Links Apr 9
UK demands exemption from EU trust registry plan STEP The UK government has confirmed that it will oppose clauses in the EU's Fourth Money Laundering Directive that would force all trusts to identify their beneficiaries in publicly accessible registries. … [Read more...]
Links Apr 8
Getting the rules right - Interview with John Christensen, executive director, Tax Justice Network Cayman Financial Review … [Read more...]
Quote of the day: offshore London
From Britain's Telegraph newspaper, an article entitled Cool London is dead, and the rich kids are to blame: "Tax empty houses? Why, no. We wouldn’t want to upset some ex-KGB thug who looted the Kazakh treasury in the mid 1990s. We wouldn’t want to annoy a banker who “honestly” didn’t know he … [Read more...]
Submission to OECD on transfer pricing and developing countries
The BEPS Monitoring Group, which TJN took the lead in establishing last year in the wake of the OECD's ground-breaking initiative, has just published this report: BMG Submission to OECD on Transfer Pricing Comparability Data and Developing Countries. This report responds to the OECD Report on … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: A week in tax justice
The Offshore Wrapper is written by George Turner Elephant in the room The Africa-EU Summit took place this weekend. The high-level event saw the heads of state and government from Africa and the EU discussing “investing in people, prosperity and peace”. … [Read more...]
Links Apr 3
Illicit capital flows are the elephant in the EU-Africa summit room EurActiv More Countries Agree to Help U.S. Crack Down on Tax Dodgers The Wall Street Journal See also: US Prepares To Enforce 45 FATCA Pacts Tax-News, U.S. gives foreign banks more time on anti-tax dodge law Reuters, and Leaked … [Read more...]
European Investment Bank exposes “hypocritical nature of western financial institutions”
The Guardian has published an article, picked up by media across the world, about the NGO follow-up to revelations in 2011 that the European Investment Bank had lent money to the Zambian firm Mopani Copper Mines (a.k.a. Glencore) which avoided paying tens of millions of dollars in local tax. At … [Read more...]
Links Apr 2
Cayman Islands’ government terminates Lord Blencathra’s lobbying contract The Bureau of Investigative Journalism See also: Lobbying row: Cayman Islands cut ties with Tory peer Lord Blencathra by mutual consent after revelations by The Independent … [Read more...]
Reports: the sorry state of U.S. tax dodging multinationals
Two major reports are worth highlighting here. First, and most recently, from the U.S. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (via Senator Carl Levin), a report on tax avoidance by U.S. multinational Caterpillar: "Caterpillar Inc., an American manufacturing icon, used a wholly owned Swiss … [Read more...]
Swiss secrecy allies falling by the wayside
Swissinfo is running a long article today which begins like this: "The decision by Luxembourg and Austria to automatically exchange tax data with other European Union countries has isolated Switzerland in the global crusade against banking secrecy, a Tax Justice Network (TJN) expert tells … [Read more...]
Shareholders to get chance to vote on Google’s tax policy at AGM
From Responsible Investor, a story about a shareholder resolution about Google’s tax strategies has been placed by a group of responsible investors onto the agenda of its forthcoming annual shareholder meeting. "The proposal calls on the company’s board to “adopt a set of principles to address the … [Read more...]
Links Mar 31
Lord Blencathra’s contract with Cayman Islands stated he would lobby MPs and Lords The Bureau of Investigative Journalism A senior UK politician who denied he had ever lobbied MPs and peers on behalf of a Caribbean tax haven had signed a £12,000 per month contract that stated he would do so. See … [Read more...]
Tanzania: parliamentary inquiry on tax abuses, tax havens, illicit flows
Adapted from an email from Tove Maria Ryding, Eurodad: Good news from Tanzania - the Public Accounts Committee there has kicked off an inquiry on tax evasion and avoidance, amid severe concerns about illicit financial flows and capital flight. We might have some interesting times … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice
The Offshore Wrapper is written by George Turner Tax avoidance in Africa – worse than we thought … [Read more...]
