From the Buenos Aires Herald: The total value of Argentines’ offshore assets as a result of capital flight reached US$298.891 billion in 2012, rising more than 250 percent from 1991, the latest report by the Economics and Finance Centre for Argentine Development (CEFID-AR) revealed. … [Read more...]
Size of the Problem
On Piketty, mathematical silliness, inherited wealth and mysterious entities
From the book everyone's talking about, Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century, a review by Paul Krugman in the New York Review of Books: "Why does inherited wealth play as small a part in today’s public discourse as it does? Piketty suggests that the very size of inherited fortunes in a way … [Read more...]
The Cost of Tax Abuse, 2011
A briefing paper on the cost of tax evasion worldwide, 2011. Cost of Tax Abuse TJN 2011 Highlights: Total tax evasion in excess of US$3.1 trillion, or 5.1% of global GDP, is due to activity in the shadow economy. Only a minority part of this is due to tax havens. Total healthcare … [Read more...]
Report: the Sorry State of U.S. Corporate Taxes, 2008-2012
A major new report from the indefatigable Citizens for Tax Justice in the U.S. The Executive Summary begins: The Sorry State of Corporate Taxes What Fortune 500 Firms Pay (or Don’t Pay) in the USA And What they Pay Abroad — 2008 to 2012 … [Read more...]
France’s CAC 40: over 1500 tax haven affiliates
From Le Monde: "The corporations in the CAC 40 [France's benchmark stock exchange index of the 40 biggest French stocks] have over 1,500 affiliates in tax havens, according to a study published on Thursday by the journal Project . . . cross-checked with authoritative studies data (the work of the … [Read more...]
GFI: $410bn illicit flows in or out of Philippines from 1960-2011
February 4, 2014 Philippine Economy Loses US2.9 Billion in Illicit Financial Outflows from Crime, Corruption, Tax Evasion over 52-Year Period; US7.6 Billion Transferred Illegally into the Philippines Smuggling through Trade Misinvoicing Cost Philippine Taxpayers at Least US$23 Billion in … [Read more...]
Links Jan 24
"ChinaLeaks" Stories Censored In Mainland China ICIJ See also: China mobilizes cyber-cops after leak on elite overseas wealth globalpost, Chinese media speaks no evil over Offshore Leaks Deutsche Welle, Latest update: Release Of Offshore Records Draws Worldwide Response and searchable Offshore … [Read more...]
The Price of Offshore, Revisited
July 22, 2012 Update, June 2014: TJN responds to attacks on the report (pdf here). MAIN REPORT 1 - The Price of Offshore Revisited: TJN's in-depth and unprecedented study into the size of the offshore system of tax havens and/or secrecy jurisdictions. The report estimates that some $21-32 … [Read more...]
Offshore Corporate Profits: The Only Thing ‘Trapped’ Is Tax Revenue
From the Center for American Progress (hat tip: AABA), in the context of news reports of trillions of dollars in U.S. overseas profits "trapped" overseas, just waiting to be invested in the struggling U.S. economy - if only it could somehow be "unlocked" (such as through a corporate tax amnesty.) … [Read more...]
The twilight of the international tax consensus
That's the headline of a provocative article by U.S. rock star tax expert Lee Sheppard, … [Read more...]
Do tax cuts promote growth? Part MCXIV
The world's economists have been arguing over this question for decades. Which is odd, because the evidence is rather clear on this point. … [Read more...]
