This is cross-posted from Huffington Post, South Africa. It's time to recognise the big four firms for what they are - or we'll continue getting stung, says economist and Chief Executive of the Tax Justice Network, Alex Cobham. And so another international firm providing 'professional services' … [Read more...]
Enablers and intermediaries
Swiss Politicians seek to block automatic exchange of banking information with developing countries
Could we be seeing a return to the bad old days of Swiss Banking? A right wing party in Switzerland, the Swiss People’s Party, has launched an assault on the automatic exchange of banking information, according to Swiss Daily Newspaper Tages Anzeiger. … [Read more...]
European Commission targets tax avoidance ‘enablers’
The European Commission has just published its proposals for rules for tax advisers and related intermediaries which will require advance disclosure to national tax authorities and cross-border automatic information exchange of any tax scheme that might be deemed potentially aggressive. … [Read more...]
How Global Audit Firms Are Using Their Lobbying Clout to Dilute Sarbanes-Oxley Reforms
The dirty world of tax evasion and avoidance involves all sorts of unpleasant and anti-social characters, none more so than the professional enablers who devise avoidance schemes, market these schemes to their clients, lobby governments for special treatments and permissive laws, and generally play … [Read more...]
Protesting PwC: Professionals Without Conscience
This week is the global week of action for tax justice and on Wednesday 5th April activists from the Tax Justice Network and Methodists for Tax Justice held a protest outside the London offices of Price Waterhouse Coopers. The global week of action for tax justice is happening one year after the … [Read more...]
New book: The Despot’s Guide to Wealth Management
There's a new book out that looks very interesting reading from Professor Jason Sharman with the rather catchy title: The Despot’s Guide to Wealth Management: On the International Campaign against Grand Corruption. It has been reviewed here in The Economist. We haven't read it yet, but this study … [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...]
Guest Post – Snowstorm – tax havens and organised crime today
Organised crime has had a long association with tax havens, and tax evasion. After All, Al Capone was imprisoned for tax evasion, and not any of the other crimes that it is said he committed. But how much do governments and police forces include tackling tax havens in their thinking of modern … [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...]
Quote of the day – tax crimes and traffic offences
From Michael West, an Australian tax journalist: "In Australia, Part 4a of the Tax Act deems that the principal purpose of a transaction should be commercial (rather than tax driven). In light of the proliferation of tax haven activities by Australian companies this law, Part 4a, must be the most … [Read more...]
Will the British government target tax dodging enablers at last?
There has been much talk in Britain of new government proposals that tax advisors giving advice on tax avoidance could face large fines of up to 100% of the tax lost if their schemes are defeated in courts. We warmly welcome the principle of the thing: these players have been getting away with … [Read more...]
Why the Swiss case against whistleblower Elmer may hurt the bankers
Rudolf Elmer, the Cayman-based Swiss whistleblower who went to prison after spilling secrets relating to the Swiss bank Julius Baer, has long been victimised not only by the Swiss banking establishment, and Switzerland's courts (which as we've extensively documented, seem to have played fast and … [Read more...]
Top tax expert: Big 4 “accountants of fortune” must be broken up
In March The Economist magazine rang alarm bells (again) about a rise in concentrated market power: a problem where the biggest firms get ever bigger and more like monopolies, making it easy to extract wealth from the rest of us (as opposed to creating wealth.) This, in turn fosters steeper … [Read more...]
Luxembourg on trial as Luxleaks whistleblowers await tomorrow’s verdict
Tomorrow afternoon the "LuxLeaks" trial will end and the two whistleblowers, Antoine Deltour and Raphaël Halet, as well as the journalist Eduard Perrin, will know whether they will be punished or not, for breaking Luxembourg's secrecy regime. They face up to 18 months in jail for exposing lurid … [Read more...]
Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer: ‘they want to crucify me, as an example to other bankers’
Rudolf Elmer, the Swiss whistleblower who has been pursued by Swiss courts for a decade and served over half a year in prison while accused of (according to Switzerland's peculiar courts) violating the Swiss banking secrecy law, now faces two more court trials: one, on June 23rd, as part of the … [Read more...]
