Singapore shuts down 2nd Swiss bank, Falcon, & fines UBS, in crackdown re Malaysian sovereign fund 1MDB scandal swissinfo See also Falcon Bosses Ignored Staff Warnings on 1MDB finews, and (from July 2016) How Malaysia’s 1MDB Fund Scandal Reaches Around the World Bloomberg Swiss banks chasing … [Read more...]
Inequality & Democracy
Links Oct 10
Australia: Oil and gas tax may raise no extra revenue for decades ABC News See also: Turnbull government called on to explain where Australia's offshore gas wealth is going The Sydney Morning Herald #Appletax ruling: "the need for a new way of taxing profits" ICRICT / Global Alliance for Tax … [Read more...]
Links Oct 6
Curbing Illicit Financial Flows and dismantling secrecy jurisdictions to advance women's human rights Global Alliance for Tax Justice Panama Papers honored with a Gold Barlett & Steele Award for Investigative Journalism ICIJ Swiss AG says "serious suspicion" of Swiss banks being involved in … [Read more...]
Links Oct 4
G20 finance chiefs to discuss risks to economy, ending secret company ownership Reuters Study: 73% of Fortune 500 Companies Used Tax Havens in 2015 U.S. PIRG See also: Offshore Shell Games 2016 When It Comes to Tax Avoidance, Donald Trump’s Just a Small Fry The New York Times Trump thinks not … [Read more...]
Quote of the day – the future of tax havens
From Joseph Stiglitz, writing in Vanity Fair: "It will not be long before those nations that opt to continue with old-style secrecy will be labeled pariah states and be cut off from the global financial system." New and abusive games will continue to emerge to fill the vacuum left by old-style … [Read more...]
Links Sep 30
The Real Scandal Behind the Panama Papers Vanity Fair Panama has passed a law to implement sanctions vs anyone who calls it a tax haven E&N (In Spanish) Capital mobility: The good, the bad and the ugly The Economist 'True FDI is an unalloyed benefit. But the growing practice of using offshore … [Read more...]
OECD threatens Bahamas with blacklisting, Bahamas wilts
The Spanish newspaper El Mundo is running an article in Spanish, whose headline translates as "If Bahamas goes on like this, it will go onto the G20 blacklist" - and the text in quote marks comes from Pascal Saint-Amans, head of tax at the OECD, the club of rich countries. The Bahamas has been in … [Read more...]
Links Sep 28
U.S. Senate's top tax lawmaker targets corporate offshore profits Reuters Battling Apple and the Giants naked capitalism Pakistan Supreme Court clears way for hearing on Panama Papers Gulf News Europe calls on journalists' Panama Papers expertise ICIJ See also: Panama Papers: European parliament … [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...]
DFID’s work on international tax avoidance: in whose interest?
A new report by its own watchdog provides damning criticism of the UK government’s approach to tax as a development issue. At best, the government has ignored both international expertise and the views of the lower-income countries it claims to be helping. At worst, UK policy can be seen as pushing … [Read more...]
Links Sep 23
Looted funds: Nigeria Labour Congress threatens protest in Switzerland Today "I think we must have a national day to demand for tax justice" Legislators introduce bill to shed more light on US multinationals Financial Transparency Coalition See also: U.S. Bill to require country-by-country … [Read more...]
Links Sep 22
Ecuador steps up campaign for a UN #Globaltaxbody Global Alliance for Tax Justice How to hide it: inside the secret world of wealth managers The Guardian "They know more about their clients than the clients’ own wives. They are loyal in the face of appalling behaviour. They are the brains behind … [Read more...]
Report: new data disproves US corporations’ false narrative on taxes
From Americans for Tax Fairness, a major new report about corporate taxes in the United States. It's called Corporate Tax Chartbook: How Corporations Rig the Rules to Dodge the Taxes They Owe, and it contains many useful facts, such as this: Corporate profits are way up, and corporate taxes … [Read more...]
Links Sep 16
Al Jazeera Investigates: Stealing Paradise Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit has uncovered corruption in the Maldives. Secretly filmed interviews describe how men on mopeds carried millions in cash to the Maldives’ political elite. Gender & Tax, from a union perspective Global Alliance for Tax … [Read more...]
Links Sep 14
An Intergovernmental UN Tax Body – why we need it and how we can get it Eurodad Taking action for tax justice at World Social Forum 2016 Global Alliance for Tax Justice New report reveals the "dark side" of European Investment Bank funds: How the EU's bank supports non-transparent investment … [Read more...]
