On March the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment held their inaugural meeting. The panel: “intends to put women’s economic empowerment at the top of the international agenda, including by defining actions to speed up progress under the 2030 Agenda for … [Read more...]
Inequality & Democracy
Scottish Government announces historic law to end secrecy of land ownership
This topic has been building slowly in some countries, whose economies are blighted by the fact that large tracts of real estate are owned by anonymous entities and arrangements, typically linked to tax havens. We'd highlight Private Eye's searchable database of offshore-owned properties in the … [Read more...]
Indonesia’s corrupt tax amnesty – how many will follow?
From Reuters: "Business may be about to look up for the [wealth management] industry helped by President Joko Widodo's tax amnesty plan that could encourage rich Indonesians to declare assets previously concealed from the authorities, either at home or abroad." So Indonesia is contemplating a tax … [Read more...]
Switzerland rejects request from Argentina on leaked HSBC accounts
From Argentina's La Nacion newspaper: "Switzerland has denied the Argentine judicial authorities information about 4,000 or so Argentine-owned bank accounts in Switzerland, saying that Argentina's request had no solid foundation." This concerns data revealed by an HSBC whistleblower, Hervé … [Read more...]
Oxfam report: Ending the Era of Tax Havens
Back in June 2000, three years before TJN's birth and at a time when nobody was talking about the issues, the charity Oxfam published a seminal document entitled Tax Havens: Releasing the hidden billions for poverty eradication. It was an important part of global tax justice history. We're … [Read more...]
Top rate income tax cuts: 89 percent go to men, 11 percent to women
From The UK's Mirror newspaper: "If George Osborne [the UK Finance Minister] slashes the rate further in the Budget – from 45p to 40p for those on £150,000 or more – will put even more money in men’s pockets. Analysis by the Tax Justice Network found there are 339,000 people (284,000 men and … [Read more...]
Links Mar 9
You're A Rich Tax Dodger? No Problem, Says Canada Revenue Authority Canadians for Tax Fairness See also: Critics want public hearings into Canada Revenue amnesty for KPMG offshore tax dodgers CBC US and EU clash over tax practice clampdown The Irish Times "Washington urges Brussels to … [Read more...]
Tax haven Panama: giving the world the “middle finger”
Stephen Sackur and the BBC's Hard Talk programme have been talking to Panama's Vice President Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado. (It's only available to UK-based viewers, unfortunately.) She begins with a bout of self-congratulation about Panama, and Sackur responds with a wide number of … [Read more...]
Links Mar 8
Time To Kill Corporate Tax? Tax-News See also our report Ten Reasons to Defend the Corporate Income Tax ECOFIN agreement a missed chance, campaigners say Financial Transparency Coalition E.U. Ministers Agree to Share Tax Details on Multinationals The New York Times See also: European … [Read more...]
International Women’s Day: tax justice is a feminist issue, every day.
Women's Budget Group (UK): showing how gender issues can be addressed International Women’s Day: Tax Justice is a feminist issue, every day. By Liz Nelson On International Women's Day, let’s remember that tax justice is a feminist issue - every day. We’d like to use today to signal some … [Read more...]
How do top rate income tax cuts affect women?
On International Women's Day, this is the first of two blogs on the subject of tax justice and gender. The short answer to the question in our headline is that cuts to the top rate of income tax hit women particularly hard, not just because their disproportionate role in childcare and other … [Read more...]
Links Mar 7
The Billionaires’ Loophole The New Yorker EU competition chief warns Apple tax challenge will take a while BDlive Facebook looks set to pay more UK tax but it might not be as much as you think The Conversation By TJN senior adviser Prem Sikka. See also Facebook to award staff £280m in … [Read more...]
Switzerland’s financial secrecy brought under the human rights spotlight
Switzerland – arguably the world’s most important tax haven – may soon face scrutiny from the United Nations human rights system over its role in facilitating cross-border tax abuse. A coalition of civil society bodies has filed a submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination … [Read more...]
Links Mar 4
AEoI as the new global standard: OECD Standard and EU Tax Cooperation, Keynote presentation at 2nd Turkish-German Biennial on International Tax Law, by TJN's Markus Meinzer, Istanbul Switzerland's Financial Secrecy Brought Under Human Rights Spotlight Center for Economic and Social … [Read more...]
UN asks IMF, World Bank, to study illicit financial flows
Highlighting a powerful new(ish) study: the final report on illicit financial flows and human rights of the UN Independent Expert, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky. It’s well worth reading the whole thing, but here are some of the top lines and just a few of the many important recommendations: Illicit … [Read more...]
