This is a moment, in these strange times, to celebrate an ongoing success in the history of the tax justice movement. Automatic, multilateral exchange of information on financial accounts is the A of our ABC of tax transparency. It has been a campaign aim since our inception in the early 2000s, as … [Read more...]
Capital Flight
Edition 7 of the Tax Justice Network’s Francophone podcast/radio show: #7 édition de radio/podcast Francophone par Tax Justice Network
We’re pleased to share the seventh edition of the Tax Justice Network’s monthly podcast/radio show for francophone Africa by finance journalist Idriss Linge in Cameroon. The podcast is called Impôts et Justice Sociale, ‘tax and social justice.’ It’s available for anyone who wants to listen to it, … [Read more...]
Edition 16 of the Tax Justice Network Arabic monthly podcast/radio show, 16# الجباية ببساطة
Welcome to the sixteenth edition of our monthly Arabic podcast/radio show Taxes Simply الجباية ببساطة contributing to tax justice public debate around the world. (In Arabic below) Taxes Simply الجباية ببساطة is produced and presented by Walid Ben Rhouma and Osama Diab of the Egyptian Initiative … [Read more...]
Social protection rights for women vs fear of alienating private interests at the UN
Last week marked the end of the 63rd Meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW 63, March 11th-22nd 2019). More information and analysis is available here from the Global Alliance for Tax Justice, well worth a read. This series of events, meetings and deliberations is … [Read more...]
Lifting the Veil on Capital Flight and Tax Havens in Africa
Cross-posted from Review of the African Political Economy with kind permission from the author, Nataliya Mykhalchenko Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Sigrid Klæboe Jacobsen, Peter Henriksen Ringstad, Honest Prosper Ngowi Lifting the veil of secrecy: Perspectives on international taxation and capital flight … [Read more...]
Empowering rural women through tax justice policies: 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women
How do we empower rural women through tax justice policies? That’s what we at the Tax Justice Network were at the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women to discuss recently at the UN Headquarters in New York City. This annual session is an opportunity for State delegations and … [Read more...]
Illicit financial flows and the tax haven and offshore secrecy system
We're sharing below the work of one of our senior advisers, Sol Picciotto, Emeritus Professor of Law at Lancaster University on defining illicit financial flows. You can also hear him interviewed on this subject in our podcast: Illicit financial flows and the tax haven and offshore secrecy … [Read more...]
Launch of the African Platform to Protect Whistleblowers
Today the Plateforme de Protection des Lanceurs d’Alerte en Afrique (PPLAAF) will be officially launched during a press conference in Dakar. We're sharing the details with you here: … [Read more...]
UN report recommends: go after tax havens, and protect whistleblowers
From the United Nations General Assembly, the fifth report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order. The summary goes like this: "The report focuses on impacts of taxation on human rights and explores the challenges posed to the international … [Read more...]
Why the Swiss case against whistleblower Elmer may hurt the bankers
Rudolf Elmer, the Cayman-based Swiss whistleblower who went to prison after spilling secrets relating to the Swiss bank Julius Baer, has long been victimised not only by the Swiss banking establishment, and Switzerland's courts (which as we've extensively documented, seem to have played fast and … [Read more...]
Finally, trade misinvoicing gets political
We recently helped publicise a report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in our blog entitled Some countries “lose” 2/3 of exports to misinvoicing. As a reminder, trade misinvoicing is a form of money laundering that involves deliberately misreporting (on an invoice to customs) … [Read more...]
Some countries “lose” 2/3 of exports to misinvoicing
From UNCTAD, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, via email: "Some commodity dependent developing countries are losing as much as 67% of their exports worth billions of dollars to trade misinvoicing, according to a fresh study by UNCTAD, which for the first time analyses this issue for … [Read more...]
Switzerland is handing back looted money. How big a deal is this?
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...]
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...]
More than $12 trillion stuffed offshore, from developing countries alone
From The Guardian: "More than $12tn has been siphoned out of Russia, China and other emerging economies into the secretive world of offshore finance, new research has revealed, as David Cameron prepares to host world leaders for an anti-corruption summit. . . . The analysis, carried out by … [Read more...]