John Christening speaking on this theme to the Bretton Woods Project, last week. (Click link to go to video, embedding does not work)
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The French and Germans have suggested that new sanctions against secrecy jurisdictions are now needed since they continue to facilitate abuse of the world’s financial architecture and undermine any prospect of effective regulation of that system. They are right to do so. These places represent a ‘get of regulation free card’ for the world’s banks, [...]
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I have been asked by several journalists what sanctions could be taken against tax havens if, as the French and German have proposed, we wish to close these places down. Surely, they have said, this would be very difficult?
I entirely disagree. It would be relatively easy to close down secrecy jurisdictions. First of all, we [...]
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PricewaterhouseCoopers gave a presentation using the above title at the conference I was at in Oslo last week.
I won’t tell you most of what they said: Chatham House rules applied.
I will tell you what I told them. I said that in my opinion they weren’t part of the problem - they designed the problem, spread [...]
That’s what Accountancy Age says might break out if Obama wins. And they note:
Tax campaigner Richard Murphy says there are some clear practical steps that could be taken to deal with havens, which are, after all, sovereign states and free to set up whatever tax rates they like.
‘Tax is not the issue,’ Murphy says, insisting [...]
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I’m curious at the speed with which people become comfortable with referring to places that they thought of as tax havens as being secrecy jurisdictions once they are introduced to the term.
The redesignation that we have introduced in the Tax Justice Network, and which is being used by some others as well, is important. The [...]
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There was some excellent research in the Sunday Herald today, to which I was pleased to have contributed. Take this:
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, one of the so-called “jewels” of the Scottish economy, has beneficial shareholdings in at least 128 companies incorporated in tax havens, according to its annual return.
Included in its portfolio are [...]
There was some excellent research in the Sunday Herald today, to which I was pleased to have contributed. Take this:
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, one of the so-called “jewels” of the Scottish economy, has beneficial shareholdings in at least 128 companies incorporated in tax havens, according to its annual return.
Included in its portfolio are [...]
It was fascinating to hear a presentation from the World Bank yesterday on how large illicit financial flows are in the world economy.
You’d have thought the World Bank would have some good feel about this issue. You’d at least have thought the IMF and others, such as the OECD might have contribution to make to [...]
Yesterday:
If [Senator McCain] wants to defend a tax code that’s more than 10,000 pages long and filled with loopholes written in by corporate lobbyists like the ones running his campaign, he’s got every right. He has every right to defend offshore tax havens that let companies avoid paying taxes here in America. But I say, [...]
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