Last year the St. Louis Post-Despatch published an editorial entitled Missouri Senate declares class war against citizens, looking at tax subsidies being showered on businesses in an effort to lure them away from neighbouring Kansas - which, in turn, has been showering subsidies on businesses to … [Read more...]
Inequality & Democracy
Links Jul 4
FATCA Just a Band Aid for Latin American Tax Evasion Inter Press Service Cites TJN's Andrés Knobel, pointing out that the limiting factor for developing countries is that FATCA is bilateral. See also: FATCA: Dropping the bomb The Economist - The article is quite harshly critical of FATCA, but does … [Read more...]
Links Jul 3
Africa: Regional integrated tax systems needed to curb illicit financial flows New Vision See also: Why Africa Must be at Heart of Global Tax Reforms Chimpreports.com Switzerland Agrees Tax Regime Review With EU Tax-News … [Read more...]
Links Jul 1
Offshore Tax Crackdown Opens With 30% Penalties for Banks Bloomberg See also: FATCA Is Finally Here -- Even In Russia & China Forbes Swiss banks to tell all under FATCA swissinfo While events are moving in the right direction, such declarations remain something of a smokescreen, as assets … [Read more...]
Over 95% of Britons want a more progressive tax system
From The Equality Trust, in a report on the United Kingdom: "Public support for a more progressive tax system is high. Over eight in ten (82%) believe that households in the highest 10% income group should pay a greater proportion of their income in tax than those in the bottom 10%. An even … [Read more...]
Quote of the day: big accountancy firms have a human rights problem
From Prem Sikka our quote of the day comes from an article entitled Big accountancy firms have a human rights problem: "In many other organisations such subversion of the human rights would be considered to be a badge of shame. At major accountancy firms it is increasingly considered to be a sign … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice
Updated with a clarification of Prince Charles' tax affairs. The Offshore Wrapper is written by George Turner Democracy is bad for you In move that can only be described as nuts, the big four accountancy firms, PWC, Deloitte, Ernst and Young and KPMG have clubbed together to take out a … [Read more...]
Links Jun 30
Argentina's Vice President Charged With Bribery abc news Vice president accused of hiding behind a shell company so he and other secret partners could benefit from unusual tax exemptions and lucrative government contracts. Zambia Refusing to Release $600 Million in VAT Refunds to Mining … [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...]
Links Jun 26
Australia dragging chain on G20's global tax crackdown The Sydney Morning Herald Bangladesh: Money flies away from Bangladesh The Daily Star "UNDP study shows grim trend of massive illicit capital flight". See also: 62% rise in Swiss bank deposits The Daily Star … [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...]
Links Jun 25
The Twin Insurgency The American Interest "The postmodern state is under siege from plutocrats and criminals who unknowingly compound each other’s insidiousness." Bangladesh: Anti Poor Tax Policy in Budget 2014-15 denies Redistributive Justice equitybd … [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...]
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice
Forever in your debt Last week saw news of a major decision from the US Supreme Court on the long running feud between the Government of Argentina and vulture fund, NML Capital. … [Read more...]
