As governments (slowly) get to grips with the fact that tax havens are inflicting great harm on economies and democracies across the globe, facilitating mega amounts of tax dodging, and vast movements of criminal money by way of the secrecy services some of them offer, the question of our times is … [Read more...]
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The problems with measuring tax systems
The following blog by TJN's Nicholas Shaxson (currently on a book writing sabbatical) was originally posted on the SPERI blog and is re-posted here with permission. In debates about tax policy we need to de-emphasise the role of economics and measurement and rekindle the politics … [Read more...]
Trusts – Weapons of Mass Injustice: new Tax Justice Network report
It is a fact that the trust laws of some tax havens openly promote illegality. The reality that some tax havens will not enforce foreign laws (e.g. ensuring non-recognition of foreign laws and judgements that favoured legitimate heirs and former spouses) is even publicly advertised by some offshore … [Read more...]
Panama Papers Committee investigates in London UK, home to 2,000 ‘enablers’
UPDATE: 15 February 2017, London - Bloomberg has reported that the chairman of the EU's Panama Papers inquiry has criticised the UK Treasury for refusing to meet with its investigatory team during the recent fact-finding visit to London. Read more here. Last year the Panama Papers scandal shook … [Read more...]
Brexit Britain: what does the public think about tax haven plans?
In January 2017 Britain's finance minister Philip Hammond and prime minister Theresa May signalled that Britain could deepen its role as a tax haven if it left the European Single Market post-Brexit. … [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...]
Crowdsourcing request: “We are not a tax haven!”
Over the years, we've chronicled the tax haven denial of many secrecy jurisdictions, even building a partial list of those who have publicly claimed "We are not a tax haven!" Now, at the prompting of tax twitter (notably Mary Cosgrove and Stephanie Johnston, with honourable mentions to Aisling … [Read more...]
French activists occupy BNP Paribas to protest against offshore secrecy jurisdictions
French activists occupy a branch of BNP Paribas to protest against that bank's deep engagement in offshore secrecy jurisdictions. … [Read more...]
EU decides criteria for inclusion on tax haven blacklist: without fear or favour?
EU governments are very close to agreeing the criteria for the EU tax haven blacklist, expected to be finalised around September 2017 so the list can be endorsed by the end of 2017. … [Read more...]
Dissecting the Cayman Islands Offshore Financial Centre: small place, big money
We welcome this latest research on the under-researched Cayman Islands, an Offshore Financial Centre (OFC) 'with foreign assets amounting to over 1500 times Cayman's domestic economy.' As we so often explain, while Switzerland currently tops our Financial Secrecy Index, if the UK and its Crown … [Read more...]
UN report recommends: go after tax havens, and protect whistleblowers
From the United Nations General Assembly, the fifth report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order. The summary goes like this: "The report focuses on impacts of taxation on human rights and explores the challenges posed to the international … [Read more...]
Ecuador’s president calls for global tax body
Updated with additional information about Correa's administration and exposés in the Panama Papers scandal; scroll down. Ecuador's president Rafael Correa has published a significant statement about international tax governance, and specifically the prospect of creating a global tax organisation. … [Read more...]
Report: new data disproves US corporations’ false narrative on taxes
From Americans for Tax Fairness, a major new report about corporate taxes in the United States. It's called Corporate Tax Chartbook: How Corporations Rig the Rules to Dodge the Taxes They Owe, and it contains many useful facts, such as this: Corporate profits are way up, and corporate taxes … [Read more...]
