In the context of a fun Twitter fight and finger-pointing between the Swiss Bankers' Association and the German Finance Ministry, there's a newish story on Quartz entitled Swiss bankers swear they are trying to help Africa get its dirty money back. It begins like this: "It irritates Valentin … [Read more...]
Enablers and intermediaries
Now Luxembourg, Switzerland are working to bolster Tax Haven USA
Update: making clear that the Swiss text we cited is a provisional test. As we've often said before, it is counterproductive (and an analytical error) to see the fight against tax havens in purely geographical terms. When the U.S. Justice Department started taking action against Swiss bankers, … [Read more...]
More sordid details about the Luxembourg tax cheat factory
If you read one story today, read this, from Private Eye. A couple of small excerpts reveal the extent to which tax havens like Luxembourg are 'captured states": Applications for the favourable rulings, Halet told the court, were sent every Wednesday at 1.30pm in batches of 30 to 40 and returned … [Read more...]
The false promise of tax haven blacklists
From Eurodad: This week, European Union finance ministers agreed to establish a common EU blacklist of so-called “non-cooperative jurisdictions” – in other words, tax havens. With one tax scandal unfolding after the other, listing and sanctioning tax havens may seem like a good solution. However, … [Read more...]
Liberia’s mysterious company registry system
Our friends and colleagues at Finance Uncovered have written a fascinating story entitled Liberia: America’s outpost of financial secrecy, which has been published today in South Africa’s Daily Maverick in cooperation with AmaBhungane. We'd urge you to read the whole fascinating story of … [Read more...]
Anti-corruption summit: UK climbdown, but momentum grows
The UK government has failed to deliver a decisive blow against financial secrecy at its Anti-Corruption Summit. David Cameron failed to convince or compel leaders of British overseas territories and crown dependencies to end their hidden ownership vehicles, despite having called for such a move … [Read more...]
Britain’s secrecy web: no corpses on the street, no problem
On the occasion of a global anti-corruption summit in London, Tom Burgis has written a superb long investigation into the City of London for the Financial Times -- read it, if you can get a copy. As a teaser: "For Andrea, the contrast between the American and British responses to BSI’s … [Read more...]
Tax Justice Focus – The Corruption Issue
As Britain prepares to host a global Corruption Summit in London next week, the Panama Papers have raised awkward questions about the country's role as an enabler of transnational organised crime. Meanwhile evidence is emerging that ordinary people in Britain no longer accept the elites' version of … [Read more...]
TJN Annual Discussion Workshop on Corruption and the Role of Tax Havens – programme
Discussion Workshop Corruption and the Role of Tax Havens #tjn16 City University, London, 28th – 29th April 2016 Oliver Thompson Lecture Theatre, Northampton Square EC1V 0HB FINAL PROGRAMME … [Read more...]
Luxleaks whistleblowers on trial in a week, face 10 years in jail
This is one of the clearest cases of tax justice versus tax haven 'justice.' From Change.org via the Support Antoine Deltour campaign: a call to get involved in support of the main #Luxleaks whistleblower, Antoine Deltour, and two others accused with him. Please share this: the case has seen … [Read more...]
Taxing tax havens – Foreign Affairs article
TJN Senior Adviser James S. Henry has an article in the latest edition of Foreign Affairs entitled Taxing Tax Havens: How to Respond to the Panama Papers. It makes the point, as we have, that the tax havens are about so much more than tax, and then adds that much of the wealth supposedly stashed in … [Read more...]
The Panama papers are not about tax
Update: see TJN writer in UK's Prospect Magazine making this general point. This deliberately provocative headline is of course not fully true: tax is clearly a tremendously important aspect of the Panama papers scandal, as it continues to roil governments and élites and their advisers, around … [Read more...]
Mossack Fonseca: why so few American clients? (Hold the conspiracy theories)
There has been a lot of buzz about one aspect of the Panama Papers: why have so few U.S. citizens been exposed in these leaks? Panama was set up originally as a country - and as a tax haven -- with the help of U.S. financial interests, and it has been substantially within the U.S. orbit (mainly with … [Read more...]
As #PanamaPapers break, Europe plans to water down company ownership transparency
Press Release: As Panama Papers break, Europe plans to water down company ownership transparency Just as the Panama papers reveal the mayhem that can be caused by secret shell companies, the European Union is set to relax ownership transparency requirements for shell companies in its forthcoming … [Read more...]
The Panama Papers: the enablers of financial secrecy know what they are doing
Press Release: Tax Justice Network The enablers of financial secrecy know what they are doing … [Read more...]
