Multinationals channel more money through "hubs" in Singapore, Switzerland than ever before, Australian Taxation Office says The Sydney Morning Herald Boost for Juncker as possible probe by MEPs into LuxLeaks scandal now in the balance The Bureau of Investigative Journalism See also earlier … [Read more...]
Finance Sector
Links Feb 2
Obama planning to tax US firms' foreign profits in blow to Ireland Irish Independent See also: It’s time to smell the coffee and start cooperating on international tax Tax Research UK Companies debate merits of ‘fair tax’ kitemark Financial Times (paywall) "For the UK’s second-largest energy … [Read more...]
Links Jan 30
Civil Society Response to the Financing for Development Elements Paper Eurodad Press release: Standard Chartered publicised tax avoidance strategy for use in some of the world’s poorest countries ActionAid Le Prix A Payer is France Inter’s “Les Choix de Inter” [pick of the week] African … [Read more...]
Links Jan 29
Global Tax Transparency Rising in 2015 As FATCA, OECD Initiatives Gain Momentum Bloomberg BNA Luxembourg investigation: EU parliament suggests LuxLeaks inquiry committee setup Luxemburger Wort Vatican foiled over bid to hide Swiss bank data The Local Japan unveils plans to impose 'exit … [Read more...]
Links Jan 28
Poverty in the Cayman Islands Tax Research UK See also: The Finance Curse U.S.: Congress Should Pass the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act to Combat International Tax Avoidance Citizens for Tax Justice Puerto Rico Expands Tax Haven Deal For Americans To Its Own Emigrants Forbes Consider also: Tax … [Read more...]
Quote of the day: tax-evading Greek oligarchs
From an article by UK journalist Paul Mason, published on the eve of the Greek vote: "As for the Greek oligarchs, their misrule long predates the crisis. These are not only the famous shipping magnates, whose industry pays no tax, but the bosses of energy and construction groups and football … [Read more...]
Links – Jan 26
Luxembourg Charges Second Ex-PwC Employee Over Tax Leaks Bloomberg See also recent blogs Will Antoine Deltour become a prisoner of conscience? and Tax haven whistleblowers: where are the human rights organisations? Davos is starting to get it – inequality is the root cause of stagnation The … [Read more...]
Links Jan 23
G20: what was achieved in 2014? Eurodad Where next for the EC tax probe? economia Green Party leader Eamon Ryan criticises Fine Gael for not backing Lux Leaks tax inquiry The Irish Times UBS France: again, the whistleblower faces her former employer Le Temps (In French) UBS whistleblower … [Read more...]
Who runs this place? ‘Policy development’ and the Big 4
We just wrote a blog about tech giants, via a Financial Times article suggesting that they risk suffering reputational damage that could eventually be as bad as the reputational damage suffered by big banks. Well, there's another category that risks suffering the same fate in future. The Big … [Read more...]
On the historical absence of inequality and tax in the news agenda
This guest blog from Dr Jairo Lugo-Ocando comes just a couple of days after the UK commentator George Monbiot wrote a piece in The Guardian entitled Our ‘impartial’ broadcasters have become mouthpieces of the elite, mostly from a Canadian and British perspective, in which he noted the extent of … [Read more...]
Links Jan 22
How Country By Country Reporting Could Have Made LuxLeaks Unnecessary Financial Transparency Coalition / Transparency International Are anonymous companies a ‘getaway vehicle for corruption’? The Guardian European Commission explains how Amazon made $4.5 billion in ‘stateless’ profits … [Read more...]
Quote of the day: offshore enforcement as a career killer
From Jack Blum, a Senior Adviser to the Tax Justice Network, testifying to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance: "For years there has been very little offshore enforcement. There was a period in the 1970’s when IRS made some efforts in that direction. The cases were dismissed. The agents who … [Read more...]
Links Jan 21
The Business Case for Ending Anonymous Companies: a Collective Effort The B Team Transparency: Cracking the shells - New rules in the European Union take aim at corporate secrecy The Economist Kenya’s capital gains tax stirs uproar CNBC Africa … [Read more...]
Foreign exchange turmoil brings offshore centres into focus
Moves by the Swiss National Bank to remove the Swiss Franc's currency peg to the Euro has prompted a new round of turmoil in global foreign exchange (FX) markets. We've already written about this from a tax justice perspective, but here's something else. Quite a few currency brokers have gone … [Read more...]
Links Jan 20
BEPS Action 14: Make Dispute Resolution Mechanisms More Effective BEPS Monitoring Group Review of Islands at the Bush Theatre London Londontheatre1.com Corporate Tax Behavior Can Be Changed By Public Pressure [Study] ValueWalk Richest Russians Repatriate Assets as Putin Turns Tax Screw … [Read more...]
