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...]
Inequality & Democracy
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...]
Links May 13
European Parliament's special tax committee running out of time The Parliament LuxLeaks special committee’s first country visit: Belgium is breaching EU tax law Sven Giegold Charged LuxLeaks journalist calls for more whistleblower protection Europe Online Magazine See also: Members of … [Read more...]
Links May 11
Upcoming EU presidency faces whistleblows and calls for transparency Eurodad See also: Letter to Ambassador of Luxembourg in Denmark, on tax avoidance and whistleblowers Exposing South Africa's "Lettergate" Scandal World Policy Blog See also: recent TJN blog South Africa’s diamond companies: … [Read more...]
Links May 8
Turkish finance minister Mehmet ?imsek: World should fight against tax evasion like it fights against terror Daily Sabah Estimating illicit funds in global tax havens moneylife Taking on the banks: a conversation with Anat Admati The New Yorker Lawmakers Embrace Patent Tax Breaks The Wall … [Read more...]
Building the foundation for tax justice through human rights
Click here for a Spanish language version of the following statement, which comes out of the meeting between tax justice and human rights communities in Lima, Peru on 29th/30th April 2015. For years, the tax justice and human rights movements have worked along parallel paths to confront the … [Read more...]
Links May 7
Optimistic about the state: Martin Wolf’s searing attack on the Competitiveness Agenda Fools' Gold - rethinking competitiveness Tax probes frustrate EU competition chief EU Observer Unitary Taxation: Tax Base and the Role of Accounting International Centre for Tax and Development Former JP … [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...]
Cayman implicated in fishy Saudi deal
From the Financial Times: "Mr Foxley says he discovered gifts to Saudi military officials and illicit payments routed through the Cayman Islands." For background, the article begins: "The UK government is fighting to keep secret details of how it handled allegedly corrupt transactions … [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...]
Avaaz in legal challenge to UK over Liechtenstein amnesty and HSBC scandal
From the Financial Times: "The UK tax authority faces a potential judicial review over its handling of the evasion scandal involving HSBC’s Swiss subsidiary, it emerged on Thursday. Lawyers acting for the international campaign group Avaaz have sent HM Revenue & Customs a letter asking for … [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...]
