In November 2008, the Queen apparently asked economists on a visit to the London School of Economics, ‘Why did no-one see it coming?’ Well, we're approaching the ten year anniversary of the financial crash which wiped out Lehman Brothers, saw the first run on a UK bank (Northern Rock) in 150 years, … [Read more...]
Tax Wars
Tax haven UK? It already is…
There has been much talk of the threats from the British Chancellor to turn the UK into a full-blown tax haven post-Brexit if the European Union doesn't give it a good trade deal. We discussed 'Brexit threats' in our January podcast. Now our Director Alex Cobham has written an article for Politico … [Read more...]
Tax justice and public contracts, Brexit threats, criminal dodges and crackdowns in our January 2017 podcast
In this month's Taxcast, our monthly podcast: we look at tax justice and public procurement - the efforts to hit tax dodging companies where it really hurts on a local level – trying to stop them bidding for public money for public contracts. Also: how massive amounts of money are flowing … [Read more...]
The real losers of the UK becoming a tax haven
For months the public and governments around the world have been totally mystified at the lack of any plan coming from the UK government on how it intends to extract itself from the European Union following the Brexit referendum in June 2016. On Sunday the British Chancellor of the Exchequer … [Read more...]
Ownership Avoidance, the Great Escape in the Tax Justice Network December 2016 Podcast
In our December 2016 Taxcast: In trusts we trust? We look at the new game in town: beneficial ownership avoidance, the booming industry in alternative escape vehicles from public registers and why we must shine the spotlight on all of them. Plus: we discuss two big stories we think will define … [Read more...]
UN report recommends: go after tax havens, and protect whistleblowers
From the United Nations General Assembly, the fifth report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order. The summary goes like this: "The report focuses on impacts of taxation on human rights and explores the challenges posed to the international … [Read more...]
Ecuador’s president calls for global tax body
Updated with additional information about Correa's administration and exposés in the Panama Papers scandal; scroll down. Ecuador's president Rafael Correa has published a significant statement about international tax governance, and specifically the prospect of creating a global tax organisation. … [Read more...]
Report: new data disproves US corporations’ false narrative on taxes
From Americans for Tax Fairness, a major new report about corporate taxes in the United States. It's called Corporate Tax Chartbook: How Corporations Rig the Rules to Dodge the Taxes They Owe, and it contains many useful facts, such as this: Corporate profits are way up, and corporate taxes … [Read more...]
Apple’s tax affairs: a symptom of the robber-baron culture
Updated with further information about Brazil's decision - see below. Now also on Angry Bear, Middle Class Political Economist From the Financial Times: More precisely, a group of 185 American CEOs has sent letters, co-ordinated by the Business Roundtable lobby group, to the leaders of 28 EU … [Read more...]
Now Brazil puts Ireland on its tax haven blacklist
We have for years remarked that one of our informal markers of a tax haven is loud tax haven denials. See our 'we are not a tax haven' blog for more. There's probably no place more vocal than Ireland, where there seems to be a veritable industry of tax haven deniers, which specialises in … [Read more...]
Report: why we need to tax corporations now, more than ever
Update: now on Naked Capitalism, where it's attracted a lot of interesting commentary Last year we published a document entitled Ten Reasons to Defend the Corporate Income Tax, outlining how the tax is under constant attack, in country after country, and explaining why it is one of the most … [Read more...]
New report from UK parliament: tax justice to the fore
The UK's All Party Parliamentary Group on Tax has published a report entitled A more responsible global tax system or a ‘sticking plaster’? An examination of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) process and recommendations. They consulted us (among many others) and the result is a … [Read more...]
Anti-tax, anti-regulation sirens already emerging after Brexit
Just before the Brexit vote we quoted Adam Posen, President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, about what might happen in a post-Brexit Britain: "If you’re anti-regulation fantasists to begin with, you start going down the path, ‘Oh we can become an even more offshore center. We … [Read more...]
Brexit gets worse as London seeks to wriggle free from UK
Cross-posted from Fools' Gold. We have our own particular reasons for disliking Brexit - the recent decision by the UK to leave the European Union. In a pre-Brexit analysis we quoted Adam Posen, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, who articulated what is probably … [Read more...]
Kenya tax haven approaching: secrecy to be enforced with prison terms
We have for a while been sounding alarms about the emergence of (yet) another tax haven/secrecy jurisdiction in Kenya. A few months ago we quoted the newspaper African Arguments: “Anti-corruption campaigner John Githongo has warned that in this setting, the NIFC “would be like a financial crime … [Read more...]
