This from page 10 of the Foot report:
It is anticipated that standards in this area will continue to rise and even those of the nine jurisdictions within the scope of this Review that have met or exceeded the current standard of 12 TIEAs should continue to enter further agreements with relevant countries. This imperative is well understood and it is appropriate that the commitment to tax transparency shown by a number of the jurisdictions has been recognised in statements by the UK Government.
The nine jurisdictions must show a commitment not just to the letter but also the spirit of international standards. Effective implementation will be an important test of this and evidence will be provided by the OECD’s Global Forum through a monitoring and peer review process. It is vital that competitor jurisdictions show the same commitment.
In the longer term, the trend for greater transparency is likely to result in pressure to move to a system of automatic exchange of information with the aim of combating tax evasion by individuals on a cross-border basis.
I think that a hint that he thinks automatic information exchange is on its way — but not just yet.
It’s also clear indication he accepts Tax Information Exchange Agreements do not work.
We’ll keep the pressure on them.
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The Foot report has been much better than the TJN would of liked it to be. Perhaps now they will spend more time chasing real issues?
Matt
Read the report and think about this: would any of this have happened without the Tax Justice Network
On a tiny budget – a fraction of that paid to Deloitte to produce the massive misinformation they have delivered we have driven the process of change to the point where Foot recognises it is unstoppable
That’s the reality
Richard
It is clear from my reading of the report that Deloitte are referring to AEOI in relation to the EUSD in particular; as there is no other mechanism that I know of to combat evasion by individulas on a cross-border basis. In other words, the other two CDs and the OTS that use WHT should go to exchange of information only.
“Would any of this have happened without the Tax Justice Network”? YES of course it would: stop being so vain!
Apparently, everything you say is “myth”, Richard Murphy.
Before I started getting interested in this core aspect of wider injustices against human development, I found myself exasperated at the lack of common vision amongst the well-inentioned activists and theorists that popped up everywhere, seemingly, in my youth – since Thatcher, basically. I got involved with countless narrow issue activists, but because direct action (not the french far rightists) is just not my style (However, I can’t help finding myself sympathise with the DA anti fascists), and Searchlight was REALLY REALLY scary, but not quite the same. So I loosely took bits from allsorts, just at the time that the anti-capitalists started networking, with the growth of comms tech.
and blah
What I’m saying is that there is no “bandwagon” of “myths” as erstwhile Rupert petulantarised elsewhere, but a gathering understanding that injustice, corruption and bad practise all needs financial support. That means from the outset of criminality or terror or deprivation the finance industry is complicit. With that I looked further.
There were no trails to investigate. The published cases, which will be a tiny minority of the few investigations, were informed only after lengthy legal battles with FS providers.
This was incomprehensible to me, and by the late 90s I was a Guernsey Fund bloke running a host of non-Guernsey products for Swiss and SA ‘clients’, I still couldn’t get a hold of it due to the fact I talked to lots of my clients, so I thought, and so I K’dmyC.
In retrospect, most of my dealings, quantitatively, were with intermediaries. Those agents were introduced to me by senior management as THE point of contact for those clients. I have never not performed my duties to my employer, so I was sending out client info direct to the rep and receiving signed authorities via them, autographed by squiggle, I swear I am the doc subject etc.
Some of the files even had a photocopied passport photo that had ‘silhouetted’ (accidentally?) during facsimile to prove that regs were important.
and blah
It took a sabbatical in the UK to reawaken the spidey-sense. By the time I was back, and being interviewed again, I had started, during the AQ conclusion to job app quizzes, postulating about the morality of facilitating crime, albeit unwittingly, and whether the ends justified the means. I was never able to forget it.
So when I first started sparring with “Rupert”, I hadn’t heard of ‘Murphy and Chritensen *spit*’ (early 2006, maybe summer), but there was many a long and vicious spewing of invective whenever someone thought about them. Judging by the standard of philosophical debate (“We are well regulated!” “You’re a commie!”) and the lifelong buzzing in my ears of ignorant rich gannets, I got all motivated again.
So Richard Murphy, thank you. Far from “brainwashed”, or automatically agreeing with any given sentiment expressed here, It has improved the out-scope awareness of the serious orgs, and has provided a logical framework on which to hang the closely-guarded single issue determineds and so bring them in to a wider questioning of humanity, progress and the moral need to maximise beneficial shared outcomes.
I was brought up to respect people.
The Isle of Man has already committed to automatic information exchange.
http://www.iomguide.com/news/general-news.php?story=104553
This was announced some time before the Foot report was published.
Now if the UK could only stop this abusive Non-Dom business then they may shake off their tax haven label.
Is it not a case of the UK saying do as I say not as I do?