Who Aids Whom? Exposing the True Story of Africa’s 2 Billion Losses Think Africa Press See also: Aid to Africa: donations from west mask '$60bn looting' of continent The Guardian, and recent blog Honest Accounts? The true story of Africa’s billion dollar losses Network against illicit financial … [Read more...]
Race to the Bottom
Links Jul 16
Tackling Tax and Saving Lives Save the Children India: Negotiations on with other countries to sign new tax treaties Business Standard See here, for why automatic multilateral exchange of information for tax purposes is needed. The Dark Side of Growth swissinfo … [Read more...]
Links Jul 15
OECD blocks tax debate at the UN TJN Latin America and Caribbean Taxation and Trade: who does the World Trade Organization play for? TJN Latin America and Caribbean Argentina: Capital flight estimated as being as much as US$ 374 billion Cronista (In Spanish) See also recent TJN blog on the … [Read more...]
CTJ: Art Laffer’s travelling fiscal circus
From Citizens for Tax Justice in the U.S.: "It is a truism in Washington that being wrong does not preclude one from wielding influence. There are, however, some pundits who are so egregiously wrong that it boggles the mind to find policymakers taking their advice. Art Laffer is one of these … [Read more...]
Links Jul 10
Swiss Banks’ Tradition of Secrecy Clashes With Quests Abroad for Disclosure The New York Times Four of the 10 richest Singaporeans are expats saving millions in taxes Quartz See also: Singapore raises maximum jail term for money laundering globalpost - Authorities now allowed to prosecute cases … [Read more...]
Links Jul 9
New Bank Leak Shows How Rich Exploit Tax Haven Loopholes ICIJ See also: Offshore secrets of the UK's wealthy political donors The Guardian Black money trail: No list of Indians holding money in Swiss banks, says Arun Jaitley Financial Express See also: Delhi searches for wealth in overseas tax … [Read more...]
Links Jul 8
Key IMF policy paper released on tax havens and development European Institute for International Law and International Relations See also our recent blog on the IMF report here. Make ‘Justified’ Requests Swiss Banks Tell India Business Insider And to compare and contrast: Swiss banks threaten … [Read more...]
Kansas/Missouri: local ceasefire in U.S. tax border war?
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...]
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...]
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...]
Quote of the day on the OECD’s tax project: “let’s hope nothing happens”
From the Financial Times, in a story about a conference on the OECD's much-discussed BEPS project to reform international tax rules for transnational corporations: “The gameplan is to be positive but hope as little as possible happens,” is how Paul Oosterhuis, a tax partner of Skadden Arps, the US … [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...]
