Dennis Howlett was the man who persuaded me to blog. He’s got a lot to answer for. He wrote a powerful blog of his own yesterday under the above title. He introduced his theme saying: Most readers will know that I offshored myself some 15 years ago. Some might remember that we drifted into Spain sometime around
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The Guardian’s editorial today renames the Crown Dependencies ’the loophole islands’ since they have appreciated that these places are about regulatory abuse in all its forms – and not just tax. But they also realise the blame lies on the UK too: Easy though it would be for the British to wag their fingers at the
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The TJN Transfer Pricing conference organised in Helsinki , in partnership with Finland’s KEPA and the Foreign Affairs ministry of Finland, was a resounding success. In essence, there was quite widespread agreement that the OECD’s dominant so-called “Arm’s Length” approach to transfer pricing — which may have worked acceptably half a century ago when the global economy
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I was on Radio Guernsey yesterday morning. My main point was that Guernsey is a tax haven or secrecy jurisdiction as I prefer to call them. I explained that secrecy jurisdictions are places that intentionally create regulation for the primary benefit and use of those not resident in their geographical domain. That regulation is designed to undermine
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This table comes from HMRC’s 2011-12 accounts, just published: Note which tax has by far the biggest write offs: it’s VAT. OK, 200 million was missing trader fraud, but that does not explain it all, by a long way. This tax is inherently difficult to collect. And 500,000 missing companies don’t help. Despite which the tax simplification
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I argued recently that if the banking crisis in Europe was to be solved then direct invstemnt in banks had to be allowed. Last night the Germans agreed and as a result the FT comments: Eurozone leaders agreed to radically restructure Spain’s €100bn bank recapitalisation plan, allowing EU bailout funds to eventually be injected directly into
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Endless hours could be spent writing on Barclays and Bob Diamond. I’ll just quote the FT editorial instead: The bank’s response has been inadequate. While it has instigated disciplinary action against some individuals, there has been no proper accounting for what went on. For instance, the legal settlement does not reveal how high up the bank the
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That’s the title of my blog on Barclays at the New Statesman. Go, look, see. It’s free

There was an almost amusing artcile in the Irish Times this week on Bono, as seen through the eyes of the charity he founded – One. As the article noted: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jamie Drummond of the anti-poverty campaign, One, has defended U2 singer Bono’s tax arrangements, saying they are “perfectly legal”. U2 faced severe criticism
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