Tax-news.com reported this morning that: President of the Swiss Private Bankers Association (SPBA) Nicolas Pictet has urged the Federal Council to abandon its “white money” strategy, and to opt instead for an automatic information exchange regime, in particular with the European Union (EU). You read that right. The report continued: Underlining the significance of Austria and Luxembourg’s
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From Martin Wolf this morning: The UK Treasury considers John Maynard Keynes to be an idiot. He famously said that “the boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity”. The Treasury rejects this view. As so often before, it is wrong. One might fairly say all other UK economic debate is a footnote to that.

The full version of this mythbuster, which I have co-written with Dan Hind on tax havens and what we can do about them is now available on line, here.

In January 2003 I published a report with this cover, which was made available here:   I thought that this proposal would be read by Prof Prem Sikka and John Christensen and that would be it. Now, just over ten years later something remarkably like it, campaigned for by very many NGOs and people I have never
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Bloomberg reported yesterday that: The European Union will seek to make large companies disclose the taxes they pay and profits they make on a country-by-country basis as it seeks to crack down on firms evading their obligations. Michel Barnier, the EU’s financial services chief, will seek to put the transparency rules in place “as quickly as possible,” Chantal
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In the May 2013 Taxcast: Google and Apple are forced to defend their tax affairs in public, how anti-EU sentiment serves offshore interests and the Taxcast looks at tax havens and the arms trade: how secrecy kills. The Lord of War makes an appearance… Produced by @Naomi_Fowler

I sat and listened to Big 4 accountants saying how dangerous and misleading country-by-country reporting would be this afternoon – although I can’t say where. Tonight the EU has announced it is looking at ways o rush through legislation to deliver it, maybe next month. I’m not counting chickens – not least because even the
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As the Wall Street Journal has reported: WASHINGTON—Some of the biggest U.S. companies, including Google Inc. and FedEx Corp., have quietly removed hundreds of offshore subsidiaries from their publicly disclosed financial filings over the past several years. Software maker Oracle Corp., for instance, disclosed more than 400 subsidiaries in its 2010 annual report. By 2012
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European Council conclusions from yesterday’s tax meeting included: (g) efforts taken against base erosion, profit shifting, lack of transparency and harmful tax measures also need to be pursued globally, with third countries and within relevant international fora, such as the OECD, so as to ensure a level-playing field, on the basis of coordinated EU positions. In particular,
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