In the October 2015 Taxcast: We look at the ‘remittance cartel’, their ‘taxing of the poor’ with monopoly prices in a juicy $450-500 billion market. Also: ‘comfort letters’ and the game changing European Commission ruling that the tax agreements between Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Fiat and Starbucks constitute illegal state aid. We analyse the rich country club of the OECD’s BEPS proposals for reform of the global corporate tax system: will it really address corporate tax avoidance and evasion?
The Taxcast
Welcome to the Taxcast – the Tax Justice Network’s monthly podcast: around 30 minutes of unmissable corruption, scandal and analysis on tax havens, tax dodging and financial secrecy you won't hear anywhere else – we cover the battles for transparency, fairness and the public interest. Each month we speak with experts in the field to help us analyse the top global stories.
If your favourite radio station's not playing it, ask them why not? Produced by @Naomi_Fowler with regular commentary from the Tax Justice Network's John Christensen. Follow the Taxcast on twitter.
Never miss an episode. Grab the show's RSS feed here. We're on iTunes, Stitcher, Acast, Spotify and many other podcast platforms. Subscribe via email here.
Edition 45: September ’15
In the September 2015 Taxcast: The next financial crisis? We look at offshore and the trillion dollar derivatives market. Plus: we discuss how Mexico’s trying to force multinational companies to pay more tax, how recent market madness originating in China shows why we need a Financial Transactions Tax more than ever, and why the recent election by a landslide of UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn is a game-changer.
Edition 44: August ’15
In the August 2015 Taxcast: Sun, sea and tax: the Taxcast goes to Mexico and looks at how multinational tourism operates there. Plus why Luxembourg is printing euros like there’s no tomorrow, Brazil offers its tax dodgers an amnesty and we ask how much longer ’emerging economies’ and other countries left out of the reform of global tax rules will put up with it. Plus more scandal and unique analysis.
Edition 43: July ’15
In the July 2015 Taxcast: in a special extended programme we look at the crisis in Greece and ask whatever happened to European unity? Also: we discuss the European Parliament’s vote for multinational corporations to report their activities on a public, country by country basis: the push to give poorer nations a say in international tax rule-making fails after three days of three days of bullying in Addis Ababa BUT Tax Inspectors Without Borders gets the green light. Plus more scandal and unique analysis.
Edition 42: June ’15
Racketeering, money laundering and bribery in international football: the FIFA scandal demonstrates everything that’s wrong with global finance and attitudes to business. Also: the EU Commission releases a laughable tax haven blacklist with some glaring omissions, we put FIFA’s auditors KPMG under the spotlight, Walmart is exposed for paying minimal taxes. And more…
Edition 41: May ’15
In the May 2015 Taxcast: Do our politicians believe in the societies they serve or not? The Taxcast looks at making the tax returns of our elected representatives public, and the inspirational achievement of journalist Umar Cheema of the Centre for Investigative Reporting in making Pakistan only the fourth country in the world to publish the tax returns of its Parliamentarians. Also: how the British general election demonstrates political capture by financial interests; libertarian paradise – the world’s newest tax haven; and is Singapore trying to shut down reporting on its tax haven status?
Edition 40: April ’15
In the April 2015 Taxcast: How just are our tax systems towards women? Plus: one of the USA’s biggest corporations (and tax avoiders) is repatriating billions from offshore and re-focusing on good old manufacturing again; and remember how the UK Prime Minister was ‘leading the world’ in transparency measures not so long ago? We discuss the letter a former Cayman Islands lobbyist and Conservative peer wrote at the time to reassure the tax haven that it was an empty gesture to distract from the proposed Financial Transaction Tax.
Edition 39: March ’15
In the March 2015 Taxcast: Democracy for sale: how our politics are heavily reliant on tax haven-friendly donors. Also, we ask: why is HSBC shutting down offshore accounts in Jersey? Are we in the final few years of the corporate income tax? Is Australia’s exempting of big companies from new transparency rules a joke? Plus more scandal and analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
Edition 38: February ’15
In the February 2015 Taxcast: Just what does a bank have to do to lose its licence?! We look at the fall out from #HSBCLeaks and ask how we can genuinely tackle criminality in global finance? Also: the latest research on fines and crimes in banking; why a recent threat to have UK Crown Dependencies and Overseas territories blacklisted won’t exactly have them shaking in their shoes; plus more scandal and unique analysis.
Edition 37: January ’15
In the January 2015 Taxcast: how offshore is ruining the ‘Beautiful Game’ – the Taxcast scrutinises football’s own goal. Also: how banks with criminal convictions are being allowed to continue to handle our money, how people may be allowed to apply for anonymity in the UK’s new register of beneficial owners of companies to be introduced in 2016, and the meeting of the world’s most powerful in that bastion of transparency, Davos, Switzerland. Plus more scandal and unique analysis.
Edition 36: December ’14
In the December ’14 Taxcast: how mafia is corrupting democracy at the heart of Europe in Italy’s capital city of Rome. Also: the #LuxLeaks whistleblower is arrested and makes his first public statements on why he did it, the UK Chancellor’s new ‘Google Tax’, is the EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker backing away from making a register of real owners of companies and trusts public? Plus more scandal and unique analysis.
Edition 35: November ’14
In the November ’14 Taxcast: ‘You can lie and steal from us again but this time we’ll know who you are’ – Ukraine becomes the first country in the world to introduce a public registry of the real owners of companies. The Taxcast speaks to the Director of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Centre about stopping corruption that continues to cost lives. Also: we look at the fallout from the latest leaks from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on corporate tax avoidance in Luxembourg aka #LuxLeaks, Kenya considers ending corporate tax holidays, and why is the taxpayer-funded European Investment Bank lending money to companies which are heavy users of tax havens? All that and more scandal.
Edition 34: October ’14
In the October 2014 Taxcast: how much is corporate welfare costing us? Across the US they’re going to start publishing the tax breaks and subsidies, and we take a look at the latest research in the UK. Also: Ireland announces it’ll abolish the so-called ‘Double Irish’ tax dodge after the EU Commission finds Apple’s tax deal is ‘illegal state aid’. But what will they replace it with? Australians discover the true state of the tax contributions made by their top companies and Tax Justice Network Africa makes history by taking the Kenyan government to court in an unprecedented case over a tax treaty with the tax haven of Mauritius.
Edition 33: September ’14
In the September 2014 Taxcast: ‘Unpatriotic corporate deserters’? We ask why so many US companies are relocating and what we can do about it. Also, the less reported side of the Scottish vote on independence, the OECD’s latest ‘action’ plan to tackle international tax avoidance and much, much more.
Edition 32: August ’14
In the August 2014 Taxcast: When was the last time you used a $100 bill, a 500 euro note or a 1,000 Swiss Franc note? We look at how Western banks and Treasuries are facilitating crime through high denomination bills. Also, tax haven reputation damage-management, Switzerland pulls a fast one on India, the European bankers raking in the bonuskis from sanctions against Russia and how the tax haven of Mauritius is…erm…expanding its portfolio.
