After discussion, the Tax Justice Network has decided that it is in the public interest to release the documents now in my possession that have been sent from Jersey regarding its new sham trust legislation.
Attached is the whole email exchange I wrote about yesterday.
Also available is an email from Bill Ogley, a lawyer in [...]
The Observer published a story today about an email from Jersey that had been sent to it, seemingly inadvertently. Nick Mathiason at the Observer was kind enough to ask my opinion on the mail, and to send me a copy since he knows of my work there. For those who don’t, I advised a Scrutiny [...]
The story about the International Accounting Standards Board’s cold shoulder for the Publish What You Pay coalition is to be found in today’s Independent on Sunday.
First, thanks to Paul Lashmar for covering the story.
Second, my thoughts. And they are that I’m becoming increasingly wound up about this. The IASB has a chance to do [...]
Just read it. It’s hard to say anything else about an article entitled ‘Taxes are a moral good, and avoiding your fair share is a moral disgrace’
Earlier this year I upset Roger Emerson, head of tax at GlaxoSmithKline by the comments I made on page 19 of the report Sustainability published on tax and CSR. What was this all about? Well, the simple fact that GSK were subject to the biggest transfer pricing tax claim that’s ever been mounted, totaling in [...]
Sometimes it’s hard to blog because you’re spending too much time talking to the old fashioned media. This is one such occasion.
Amongst the people I’ve been proud to work with over the last couple of years are the Publish What You Pay (PWYP)campaign. I wrote their proposals for an international accounting standard for the extractive [...]
News reports suggest that South Africa will publish its long awaited new anti-avoidance legislation next week.
This is good news. The legislation should be a full blown general anti-avoidance principle. Reports suggest that:
Transactions will need to have intrinsic "commercial substance" to pass muster with SARS and must be aligned with the spirit of the legislation [...]
English language reports from Slovenia report today that the government has:
given up the idea of the flat tax rate because the calculations revealed that its effect on the economic growth would not be such as anticipated, while its effect on inequality would be extremely noticeable.
This is great news! Slovenia was seen by many as the [...]
My friend Dennis Howlett has been giving this blog some plugs, and has even been saying some kind things about me. He does so in this article which is worth reading for far more reasons than that.
What he says, in a nutshell, is that a couple of curmudgeons are a good thing for a company. [...]
The European Court of Justice has given its long awaited ruling on the Cadbury Schweppes case. One of the better commentaries on the web (and most are superficial) is from Reuters, so I won’t cover the ground here.
What the ruling said was this:
Articles 43 EC and 48 EC must be interpreted as precluding the inclusion [...]
