The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have released their latest leak of data from the offshore world. The 'Paradise Papers' are a leak of over 14m documents from the offshore law firm Appleby. So far leading politicians and even Queen Elizabeth have been revealed to be involved … [Read more...]
Blog
Portrait of a tax haven: Jersey
The next in our series of articles taking a deep dive into some of the world's tax havens ahead of the publication of our next installment of the Financial Secrecy Index. Today, we are publishing an article setting out the history and development of Jersey as a financial center. … [Read more...]
EU tax haven blacklist must not be watered down
We are reposting here an open letter sent by TJN-Germany today to Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the EU-Commission, on the forthcoming EU tax haven blacklist. It is worth noting too, that the OECD's blacklist of June 2017 only had 1 (o-n-e!) tax haven listed: Trinidad & Tobago. All of which … [Read more...]
Links Nov 2
Exposure, Control of Countries Hiding Corruption, Other Illegal Finances Should Involve UN, Helsinki Conference Agrees Tanzania Business News Illicit outflows hurting Africa’s revenue collections, development efforts The New Times, Rwanda After precipitating the latest Citizenship By … [Read more...]
Links Oct 31
Panama Papers investigation reveals Bolivia’s offshore connections ICIJ Exclusive: Swiss prosecutors seek widening of secrecy law to bankers abroad Reuters See our blog from last year: Trial of whistleblower Rudolf Elmer breaks open Swiss banking secrecy at a new level … [Read more...]
Result: European Commission to investigate UK tax treatment of MNCs
On 23rd January 2016, the then Chancellor of the UK Exchequer (finance minister) George Osborne announced (via twitter) that he had negotiated a tax settlement with Google. On examination we decided that this deal was shockingly poor value for UK taxpayers and, worse, almost certainly contravened … [Read more...]
Links Oct 27
State aid: European Commission opens in-depth investigation into UK tax scheme for multinationals European Commission Press release Multinationals still favored by governments, new EU tax investigation reveals Oxfam International EU to investigate UK tax loophole for multinationals The … [Read more...]
Links Oct 26
Tax affairs of the wealthy at risk after data hack economia Many of the world's most famous people are terrified about a new cyber attack The Independent 'The leak could be like the second round of the Panama Papers'. See also: Bermuda cyber hack: Offshore law firm data hack leaves super-rich … [Read more...]
Our paper “Trusts: Weapons of Mass Injustice?” – now available in Spanish
Our paper "Trusts: Weapons of Mass Injustice?" which we released and blogged about earlier this year is now available in Spanish. The English version of the paper is available here. The paper provoked critical attention from practitioners and from tax havens. Our response to their critiques is here … [Read more...]
Master of Tax Course: Combating Fiscal Fraud and Empowering Regulators
We'd like to share the details of a fascinating course for those working on tax issues within the public and private spheres in Europe. It's run by the COFFERS project team. COFFERS (Combating Fiscal Fraud and Empowering Regulators) is an EU Horizon 2020 Project. We're sharing the details from the … [Read more...]
Passports and residency for sale in our October 2017 podcast
In this month’s Taxcast we look at the booming business of passports and residency for sale, and why it should worry us all. Also: even the IMF now advocates wealth taxes to combat inequality, yet governments around the world – most recently President Macron of France – are going in the … [Read more...]
Links Oct 20
Tax justice: A powerful means to address inequality CIDSE A new global solution to money laundering will mainly just help rich countries Quartz On a report (linked yesterday) by the Financial Transparency Coalition and Christian AID. PANA Committee finds resistance to reforms by ‘some member … [Read more...]
Links Oct 19
Unequal Exchange: How poor countries are blindfolded in the global fight against banking secrecy Financial Transparency Coalition & Christian Aid Combating Illicit Financial Flows Through Corporate Tax Evasion, By Léonce Ndikumana Premium Times Strengthening regional collaboration in … [Read more...]
Tax justice, the new Washington consensus?
I had the honour of giving a keynote address at the World Bank/International Monetary Fund annual meetings on 15th October 2017, for an event entitled 'Technical challenges and solutions for taxing wealth in developing countries' - which gave the impression that a new Washington consensus on tax … [Read more...]
Malta & corruption: Investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia killed by car bomb
As reported by Reuters, Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta’s best-known investigative journalist was killed today by a powerful bomb which blew up her car. Only fifteen days earlier she had reported threats against her to the police. Her absolutely fearless blog Running Commentary continually broke … [Read more...]
