The Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) has launched a 'roadmap' for taxing multinationals. This important intervention not only confirms the failure of current tax rules to deliver fair outcomes internationally, but sets the course for a specific … [Read more...]
Taxing corporations
Seventy-seven nation industrial reserve army
We're sharing in full an article published this month here from one of the Tax Justice Network's Senior Advisers, Tax Barrister David Quentin. … [Read more...]
The US’s ‘Trump/Goldman tax law’ and the race to the bottom
The American Interest magazine has published an article by TJN senior adviser James Henry in which he points out that the damage caused by President Trump's tax reforms will ripple out way beyond the USA, where many citizens will be seriously harmed (we reported on the human rights implications of … [Read more...]
Human rights costs of the proposed U.S. tax cuts
The UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Philip Alston is making an official visit to the United States to investigate the links between the growing phenomenon of poverty and human rights deprivations. This comes at a time when the current administration is working on passing … [Read more...]
Big Four accounting firms are key drivers of tax haven use, new research says
As scandals emerge from the Paradise Papers, the Big Four accountancy firms seem to have managed to stay largely out of the spotlight once again. But research released today shows that scrutiny of their practices is justified in the public interest. The new study is authored by Dr Chris Jones and … [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...]
The Dutch government cuts its corporate tax rate…
The new Dutch government is to announce that it will cut its corporate tax rate according to leaked details of the current round of coalition talks. This move is the equivalent to the country jumping into the race to the bottom pool with both feet. We've always highlighted the false narrative … [Read more...]
European Commission orders Luxembourg to claim back 250 million in taxes from Amazon – TJN Reaction
There are two very welcome pieces of tax justice news today. Firstly, the European Commission has ordered the tax haven of Luxembourg to recover 250 million euros in taxes from Amazon, finding that the benefits extended to the company amount to illegal state aid. The support Amazon received, allowed … [Read more...]
RB tax avoidance – company calls for public country by country reporting after Oxfam report reveals profit shifting
Oxfam has today released a report on tax dodging by RB, the company formerly known as Reckitt Benckiser and the maker of thousands of well known household products. The report looks at the 2012 restructuring of the company which saw it set up ‘hubs’ in the Netherlands, Dubai and Singapore, all … [Read more...]
Public country-by-country reporting: it’s not about costs or trade secrets
A guest blog authored by Matti Ylonen [University of Helsinki and Aalto University Business School]. The European Parliament is currently debating a proposal for public country-by-country reporting (CBCR), and the vote was recently postponed to later in June. Under the original proposal of the … [Read more...]
Paying a ‘Fair Share’: new brief on taxing multinational companies
In this new brief just published by the Sheffield Political Economics Research Institute authors John Mikler and Ainsley Elbra address the issue of global corporate tax avoidance and consider how multinational corporations can be made to pay their fair share of tax. … [Read more...]
President Trump visits La-La-Laffer Land
Taken as a whole, the tax plans just announced by US President Donald Trump, which include abolition of the inheritance tax, could represent the largest tax cut for billionaires and millionaires in US history. According to the President, this will stimulate growth and job creation. There's no … [Read more...]
Australian beer drinker tax vs the world’s biggest gas companies
Is it fair that Australians pay more tax on one beer than the oil and gas industry pays in petroleum tax on offshore gas in a year? Might a 10% royalty guaranteeing annual revenue of between $1.3 billion and $2.8 billion be a better way to go? These are the issues rightly raised by a report just … [Read more...]
New estimates reveal the extent of tax avoidance by multinationals
New figures published today by the Tax Justice Network provide a country-level breakdown of the estimated tax losses to profit shifting by multinational companies. Applying a methodology developed by researchers at the International Monetary Fund to an improved dataset, the results indicate global … [Read more...]
Is tax avoidance at the heart of Ireland’s economic miracle?
Coming out of the economic crisis Ireland was one of the best performing economies, with GDP growth rates of 8.5% in 2014 and an extraordinary 26.3% in 2015. But how much of this economic activity was real, and how much a fiction created by Ireland's tax haven status? A new paper by Heike Joebges … [Read more...]
