In this episode of the Tax Justice Network’s monthly podcast, the Taxcast: We look at the terrible Beirut explosion and how the story of tracing those responsible tells us everything that's wrong with our world.Plus, we discuss what President-elect Biden's win could mean for tax and economic … [Read more...]
Secrecy
New publication on beneficial ownership transparency for companies listed on the stock exchange
This new paper describes why beneficial ownership regulations shouldn’t exempt companies listed on a stock exchange. In essence, securities’ disclosure regulations aren’t enough to identify beneficial owners. In addition, definitions are subject to loopholes that affect identifying all relevant … [Read more...]
Systemic Corruption and the Oligarchic Threat to National Security
Attempts to tackle corruption have tended to work with a narrow, legalistic definition of the phenomenon, which leaves much that should concern us either out of focus or altogether invisible. In this guest blog, cross-posted from our recent edition of Tax Justice Focus on national security, Camila … [Read more...]
The Financial Infrastructure of Corruption
We recently published a special edition of Tax Justice Focus on national security, guest edited by Jack Blum, Charles Davidson and Ben Judah. You can read their editorial here. In the following article, Yakov Feygin from the Berggruen Institute, argues that the United States could and should use … [Read more...]
Tax havens harm our well-being and security
Image: NeoNazi_02″ by Chad Johnson is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 This week we published a special edition of Tax Justice Focus on national security, guest edited by Jack Blum, Charles Davidson and Ben Judah. You can read their editorial here. In the coming days we will publish the five … [Read more...]
How Denmark is verifying beneficial ownership information
Guest blog by Jesper Bertelsen, Danish Business Authority The concept of a well-functioning beneficial owner register sounds achievable and easy, at a first glance. Simply put, legal entities check who their beneficial owners are, and enter this information into a system, in turn making it … [Read more...]
Regulating complex ownership chains – a call for experts for closed brainstorming round-table session
Regulating complex ownership chains – A common goal for tackling beneficial ownership transparency and tax avoidance? The Tax Justice Network, together with City University London, the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), Transparency International … [Read more...]
We ran a beneficial ownership webinar for over 260 officials from Latin America
On 26 August, together with the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), we hosted a webinar in Spanish for Latin American authorities involved in beneficial ownership transparency. The Spanish webinar was based on the first and second set of presentations on beneficial ownership … [Read more...]
Dubious arguments to defend secrecy, even as automatic information exchange booms
Updated: an earlier version of this blog incorrectly referred to the legal opinion of the Advocate General as belonging to Luxembourg rather than to the European Court of Justice. For years, we have advocated the automatic exchange of bank account information across borders. The previous “on … [Read more...]
Developing countries, take note: how much money do your residents hold in Australia, the most transparent country on bank account information
Australia has become the first country to publish statistics on automatic exchange of information for all jurisdictions, especially those that cannot join the automatic exchange system. Here’s what they reveal and why it has more potential than statistics published by the Bank for International … [Read more...]
Is financial secrecy always bad?
The Tax Justice Network has long been an opponent of financial secrecy. Wealthy oligarchs, criminals, and looters have increasingly been paying lawyers, accountants and bankers to set up secrecy vehicles such as trusts, foundations and shell companies to hide their ownership of all sorts of assets … [Read more...]
Exploring UK companies’ legal ownership chains to detect red flags and verify beneficial ownership information: Part 1
By Andres Knobel and Oliver Seabarron The Tax Justice Network in cooperation with the CORPNET group at the University of Amsterdam (@UvACORPNET) and the Data Analytics and Society Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Sheffield (@DataCDT) has mined and applied advanced analytics to … [Read more...]
It’s got to be automatic: Trillions of dollars offshore revealed by Tax Justice Network policy success
This is a moment, in these strange times, to celebrate an ongoing success in the history of the tax justice movement. Automatic, multilateral exchange of information on financial accounts is the A of our ABC of tax transparency. It has been a campaign aim since our inception in the early 2000s, as … [Read more...]
Tax, reparations and ‘Plan B’ for the UK’s tax haven web
The killing of George Floyd by US police in Minnesota, on 25 May 2020, has sparked a public response both more powerful and more international than almost any of the previous cases in a very long line - including Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, 13 March 2020. The demands for justice extend far beyond … [Read more...]
Tax Justice Network Portuguese podcast #13: Pandemia: como acertar no socorro às empresas?
Em meio à crise econômica e sanitária, o governo brasileiro anunciou uma injeção de mais de US$ 185 bilhões para ajudar o setor financeiro — cerca de dez vezes o orçamento do Ministério da Saúde. Enquanto isso, 87% das micro e pequenas indústrias do Estado de São Paulo, por exemplo, não conseguem … [Read more...]
