Recently the U.S. pharma giant Pfizer announced a merger with the drugmaker Allergan, in a deal heavily motivated by tax cheating via a 'corporate' inversion - a corporate relocation to take advantage of (in this case Ireland's) lax tax regime. Much has been said on the topic, with U.S. … [Read more...]
Transfer Pricing
The chaser’s guide to tax havens: a simple 1,413-step guide
Some offshore humour for a Monday morning: The Chaser's Guide to Tax Havens, from Australia. The magazine has an interesting history: "Ever since The Chaser started, back in 1999, we have strived to build our company on a solid foundation of inexplicable and highly technical tax losses." Back … [Read more...]
How the U.S.A. became a secrecy jurisdiction
This month we published our fourth Financial Secrecy Index (FSI), complete with a series of reports about each of the biggest tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions, looking into the political and economic histories of how and why they went offshore, who was involved, and where the bodies are … [Read more...]
How Ireland became an offshore financial centre
This month we published our fourth Financial Secrecy Index (FSI), complete with a series of reports about each of the biggest tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions, looking into the political and economic histories of how and why they went offshore, who was involved, and where the bodies are … [Read more...]
Still Broken: major new report on global corporate tax cheating
Update, Dec 7, 2015: a new paper in the Journal of World Business, which contains this: "Home country statutory corporate tax rates have a small impact on tax haven use. In general, corporate tax rates are an important factor in driving MNEs to set up tax haven subsidiaries. However, … [Read more...]
Guest blog: sun, sea, sand, tourism and fantasy finance
Where are you going on your next holiday? The chances are if you are flying to a Sun&Sea destination, it will be with a tax-dodging company. A guest blog by Linda Ambrosie. Listen to her on the Taxcast here. Do you recognize any of these names: Barceló, TUI or Melía?. In … [Read more...]
Fifty Shades of Tax Dodging: how EU helps support unjust global tax systems
A major new report written by civil society organisations in 14 countries across the EU, co-ordinated by Eurodad. Fifty Shades of Tax Dodging: the EU's role in supporting an unjust global tax system … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice #70
MTN’s Mauritian Billions A group of investigative journalists in Africa working with Finance Uncovered, a TJN supported project have discovered that Africa’s largest mobile phone network, MTN, has been moving billions of Rand in revenue to the island of Mauritius. … [Read more...]
What will BEPS fix, and who will gain?
A guest blog by Sol Picciotto, co-ordinator of the BEPS Monitoring Group. What will BEPS fix, and who will gain? The launch this week of the final reports from the G20/OECD project on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) has sparked two frequently asked questions. The first is: can we give … [Read more...]
Finance Uncovered: how Africa’s biggest cell phone firm shifts billions offshore
From Finance Uncovered, a TJN-founded project, a press release about a story that is (among other things) front page of South Africa's influential Mail & Guardian newspaper. Finance Uncovered reveals how Africa’s biggest cell phone firm shifts billions offshore The Finance Uncovered global … [Read more...]
GATJ: OECD tweaks to tax rules for multinational corporations fall short on transparency, inclusivity
From the Global Alliance for Tax Justice, a press release on the OECD's BEPS process, which we wrote about yesterday: "The Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ) is urgently calling for a United Nations-based follow-up process to the “flawed” OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project, in … [Read more...]
Press release: OECD’s BEPS proposals will not be the end of tax avoidance by multinationals
PRESS RELEASE EMBARGOED: 14:00 CET See this press release in pdf form here. See the BEPS Monitoring Group's longer technical evaluation here (or in condensed form here.) See links to further statements by others below. OECD’s BEPS proposals will not be the end of tax avoidance by … [Read more...]
Developing countries and BEPS: an equal footing?
From Bloomberg BNA: "Since 2013, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] has been working on a 15-item BEPS action plan under Group of 20 authority with the aim of closing “loopholes” that allow multinationals to drastically reduce their taxes. Along the way, the project … [Read more...]
The march of the international tax treaty arbitrators
From Martin Hearson, a (somewhat wonkish) post about tax treaties and developing countries, entitled The tax treaty arbitrators cometh: "There are lots of reasons why eliminating all forms of double taxation faced by cross-border investors is a sensible thing to try to do. It is what tax treaties … [Read more...]
The G20/OECD BEPS Project on corporate tax: a scorecard
In 2013 the G20 world leaders mandated the OECD, a club of rich countries, for its Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project to produce reforms of international tax rules that would ensure that multinational enterprises could be taxed ‘where economic activities take place and where value is … [Read more...]
