From ActionAid, another excellent investigation into a corporate tax dodge in Malawi, which on some measures is the world's poorest country: Today [June 17] we’ve released an investigation into an Australian mining company called Paladin, operating in Malawi – the world’s poorest country. We … [Read more...]
Aid, Tax & State-building
Are the G7 really suggesting compulsory arbitration on international tax disputes?
Christian Aid sent us this email yesterday, and it's a shocker. Back in 2013, the G7 made some pretty strong commitments to tax justice, and we said then we'd be watching them carefully to see if they'd deliver. Well, on this evidence, they haven't: quite the opposite, in fact. It is worth … [Read more...]
Quote of the day – tax incentives as official tax evasion
This headline may seem odd. Conventionally tax evasion involves cutting taxes by breaking laws; using tax incentives is a different creature altogether: it involves cutting taxes by using the law. But this useful new report from the European parliament contains a twist on the conventional … [Read more...]
The other FIFA scandal: poor countries and the tax-free bubble
We've just written about the role of Goldman Sachs in distorting U.S. sports and harming smaller players via tax cheating. Well, here is yet another thing to make you choke on your cornflakes: FIFA hurting poor countries though what we'd describe as aggressive, idiosyncratic tax cheating. … [Read more...]
Stiglitz to tax haven UK: you are aiding and abetting theft
Our quote of the day, from Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, commenting in the wake of the UK election: “Some of these people are just using your rule of law to protect money they have stolen in other countries . . . From a global point of view, you are aiding and abetting theft.” … [Read more...]
Should tax targets for post-2015 be rejected?
From Alex Cobham, TJN Research Director, writing at Uncounted: "In a strident blog at the International Centre for Tax and Development, Mick Moore, Nora Lustig, Richard Bird, Nancy Birdsall, Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Richard Manning and Wilson Prichard have called for the rejection of post-2015 tax … [Read more...]
Tax Justice Focus – the Gender edition
We are delighted to announce the latest edition of our quarterly newsletter,Tax Justice Focus. This is The Gender Edition, and it is guest edited by Liz Nelson of TJN. It complements a new "Gender" page we've just opened up, where these materials will be permanently stored. … [Read more...]
Report: Tax havens cost Egypt’s treasury billions
From Madamsr.com: "Egypt loses as much as LE5 billion [TJN: that's over $650 million; there's also a reference to $2.2 billion in annual trade mispricing] a year in tax revenue due to companies using tax havens to shield profits from taxes, according to a new report from the Egyptian Initiative … [Read more...]
Will UK’s new government help poor countries fight tax haven secrecy?
The United Kingdom is, in many respects, the most important single player in the world of offshore tax havens (or secrecy jurisdictions.) It has many offshore characteristics itself, and it runs a network of partly-British havens, whose laws it can strike down when it really wants to. So it is … [Read more...]
The Tax Justice Research Bulletin 1(4)
Corrected: the earlier version referring to a Banque de France Report said "$8bn revenue loss" when it should have referred to an $8bn loss in tax base. The Tax Justice Research Bulletin By Alex Cobham. TJN (April 2015) - The Tax Justice Research Bulletin is a monthly series dedicated to … [Read more...]
Why Gender Equality Requires More Tax Revenue
This is the third post this week on the topic of gender, and to celebrate our arrival in the modern world we have created a new topic page, where you will permanently be able to access news and analysis in this area. Now we're delighted to host a guest blog by Diane Elson, Chair of the UK … [Read more...]
How do tax wars affect women?
Cross-posted from Fools' Gold: From the Association for Women's Rights in Development, a post related to a landmark meeting in Lima on tax justice and human rights: "The current “race to the bottom” in which tax competition among developing countries takes place to attract corporate and … [Read more...]
How do the UK parties’ promises on tax measure up on gender equality?
Ahead of the UK General Election due on May 7th, we are delighted to post a guest blog by Professor Sue Himmelweit of the Women’s Budget Group. The blog explains clearly just how important these issues are, and it also soon becomes clear that although this is a UK-focused blog, it has obvious … [Read more...]
Lima: TJN director Christensen speech on tax justice and human rights
From John Christensen, TJN's director, a speech about tax justice and human rights. It begins like this: "Why the tax justice movement should embrace human rights. And vice versa The history of economic and social rights in most countries can be discovered in their tax codes. Tax is at the … [Read more...]
Working people pay taxes – corporations must pay their share!
Public service trade unions and the Global Alliance for Tax Justice invite members to join in marching this May Day under the banner “Working people pay taxes – corporations must pay their share!” … [Read more...]
