Guest blog: Tax and the social contract in Brazil By Marcus Melo, professor of Political Science at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, and Armando Barrientos, co-research director of the International Research Institute on Brazil & Africa. Internationally, debates on tax in … [Read more...]
Aid, Tax & State-building
Developing countries and tax treaties: learning from mistakes
From Martin Hearson, whom we quoted recently on a related topic: "One big theme from the interviews I conducted on my recent African trip is that tax officials in developing countries are really starting to raise concerns about some of their tax treaties. This is particularly true of treaties with … [Read more...]
Argentina tax bureau gets Swiss data, while others skulk in shadows
This is a sight for sore eyes. Argentina, a country that has suffered more than most under the scourge of predatory Swiss banking practices (not to mention the banking practices of the UK, United States and others), is making a very public stand. The head of Argentina's tax bureau, Ricardo … [Read more...]
UNCTAD: the time for tax justice has come
A press release about the latest UNCTAD Trade and Development report 2014: "Governments, from rich and poor countries alike, should be able to finance the investment and other public spending required to meet the demands of their citizens for a more prosperous and secure life. Mobilizing domestic … [Read more...]
Will the UN take serious action to stop the loss of trillions of dollars to tax abuse?
From Prof. Thomas Pogge: "Intense negotiations are going on at the United Nations about the formulation of the new sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the targets and indicators to be used for specification and measurement. Starting 11 September, the president of the general assembly will host … [Read more...]
Basic income: the world’s simplest plan to end poverty
From an article on Vox, explaining the concept: "Basic income" is shorthand for a range of proposals that share the idea of giving everyone in a given polity a certain amount of money on a regular basis. A basic income comes with no categorical eligibility requirements; you don't have to be blind … [Read more...]
Developing countries: a new government revenue dataset
From the International Centre for Tax and Development: A major obstacle to cross-country research on the role of revenue and taxation in development has been the weakness of available data. This paper presents a new Government Revenue Dataset (GRD), developed through the International Centre for … [Read more...]
Tax Inspectors Without Borders – an update
Tax Inspectors Without Borders, an idea that originated out of the Tax Justice Network, is coming closer to reality. The OECD website has a section, which we think is fairly new, saying: "The Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) objective is to enable the transfer of tax audit knowledge and … [Read more...]
Secret tax report on Glencore withheld by EIB – why?
From Christian Aid, a press release aimed concerning possible tax evasion in Zambia, and aimed at UK Chancellor George Osborne: Christian Aid urges George Osborne to intervene on secret bank tax report Christian Aid is appealing to George Osborne to help secure the release of a report by the … [Read more...]
Honest Accounts? The true story of Africa’s billion dollar losses
For decades Western countries have peddled a fairy tale about Africa's plight. The tale spins a homely story of how the West provides development aid to assist African nations overcome their own shortcomings. The tale is, of course, a vicious and mendacious nonsense. As this new report from … [Read more...]
How developing countries can take control over their tax destinies
Krishen Mehta, a Senior Adviser to TJN, has written a short document with ten pointers offering ways that developing countries can take control over their tax destinies. We reproduce the introduction of his article below: please click on the full article for the ten points. We hope to produce more … [Read more...]
The Swiss commodity black hole: a bizarre new government proposal
From the Berne Declaration and Swissaid: "The Federal Council today announced its wish to close the Swiss gaps in transparency for the global commodity industry. But the entire commodities trading business may well be excluded from any future regulation." … [Read more...]
IMF: tax havens cause poverty, particularly in developing countries
The IMF has a major new Policy Paper out entitled Spillovers in International Taxation, looking at the effects that one country’s tax rules and practices can have on others. Of course this is a Staff Report and the IMF would never be so rude to some of its most powerful member states as to … [Read more...]
The Impacts of Illicit Financial Flows on Peace and Security in Africa
From Alex Cobham of the Center for Global Development, a paper for the Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa 2014. It's called, as our title suggests, The Impacts of Illicit Financial Flows on Peace and Security in Africa. Published in April, it's an important contribution to the … [Read more...]
New report: developing countries want automatic information exchange
From the International Tax Review: "The Tax Justice Network (TJN) has accused the OECD of not consulting developing countries about the design of the framework for Automatic Information Exchange (AIE), which the G20 has endorsed as the global model for information exchange." Our new report was … [Read more...]
