A second quote of the day, from U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, following our quote from Switzerland earlier: "If large financial institutions can break the law and accumulate millions in profits, and if they get caught, settle by paying out of those profits, they do not have much incentive to … [Read more...]
Enablers and intermediaries
Credit Suisse’s U.S. public hearing on Wednesday
A guest blog by Heather Lowe of Global Financial Integrity, with thanks: As many of you know, Credit Suisse AG (CSAG) was convicted in November of U.S. felony charges relating to assisting (and soliciting) tax evasion by U.S. taxpayers. A consequence of this felony conviction is that, according … [Read more...]
The New Year Wrapper
Ahmadinejad: “he was my driver” The Mafia Capitale scandal has been gripping Italy over the last few months. It involves the corrupt award of public sector contracts in Rome to a network of people associated with extreme right-wing and neo-fascist movements. … [Read more...]
On the Capture of Luxembourg by Big Accountancy Firms
UPDATE: TJN is among a host of signatories to a letter (published here) calling on the Luxembourg authorities to refrain from prosecuting whistleblower Antoine Deltour. In the letter we note that even the Luxembourg government has publicly recognised that the information revealed by M Deltour has … [Read more...]
British tax havens fight back against transparency moves
Just over a year ago the British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose family has had tax haven interests for many years, tried to whitewash Britain’s Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies with a statement saying: “I do not think it is fair any longer to refer to any of the Overseas Territories … [Read more...]
Luxembourg Leaks 2: Koch Industries, Disney, Skype edition
So the next round of Luxleaks is with us. Corporate tax avoidance, as the chair of the UK's Public Accounts Committee put it, "on an industrial scale." We post an array of stories below, and will write more about this in due course. As it happens, Luxembourg is likely getting it in the neck … [Read more...]
The UK tax havens and broken promises
By Rosie Sharpe, Money Laundering Campaigner at Global Witness. There’s been much progress recently in requiring companies to put the names of the people who own and control them – their so-called beneficial owners – into the public domain. This is really important to tackle the devastation … [Read more...]
European Parliament must set up a committee of inquiry on tax avoidance
In the wake of the "Luxembourg Leaks" scandal, more than 30 organisations from the Tax Justice Europe network have written to members of the European Parliament strongly supporting a proposal from Green MEPs to set up a stand-alone investigative committee of the European Parliament to tackle … [Read more...]
Intermediaries survey – help shape our engagement with the professions
Read The Professions Issue of Tax Justice Focus here. Take part in the survey here. … [Read more...]
CEO: EU Commission gets advice on tax policies from #LuxLeaks tax dodgers
From the Corporate Observatory Europe, an important article entitled Commission gets advice on tax policies from LuxLeaks tax dodgers. It begins: "LuxLeaks documents recently revealed that the consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has created questionable strategies enabling big businesses to … [Read more...]
Update: report on the OECD’s information exchange standard
A month ago we published a preliminary report entitled ‘The end of bank secrecy?’Bridging the gap to effective automatic information exchange, looking at the OECD's new system of automatic information exchange. We have now completed our final technical analysis of the report. It is not very … [Read more...]
Not In My Name: remarkable, rare voices of remorse and mortification in Luxembourg
We have often remarked on how easy it is for financial services interests to "capture" small tax havens or secrecy jurisdictions. It's a common pattern and a woefully under-studied phenomenon where the capture by global offshore finance extends beyond the policy-making apparatus … [Read more...]
Success in Barclays tax haven campaign
From ActionAid, some excellent news: "53,000 people taking action, hundreds of us writing to our MPs, thousands of passionate messages and one Father Christmas later, I’m really pleased to be able to tell you that Barclays have committed to stop promoting tax dodging through tax havens to … [Read more...]
PWC and Luxembourg: no, this wasn’t ‘legal’ behaviour
From Prem Sikka, a quote from an article from June that provides essential context for those who would dismiss the explosive leaks and analysis from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Luxembourg. The Big Four accountancy firm PWC has been exposed as having … [Read more...]
Huge trove of information blasts hole in Luxembourg’s theatre of probity
From the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a story we've been waiting for: "Capping a six-month investigation, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its media partners are publishing a secret cache of leaked tax documents and dozens of … [Read more...]
