Oxfam has published its precipitous for beating tax abuse in Europe. They say:
Oxfam is calling upon the European institutions, especially the European Commission in its two tax-related proposals for 2015, to:
1. Support the creation of a UN inter-governmental body on tax cooperation, by calling for a Ministerial roundtable on tax during the Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa in July 2015.
2. Increase corporate tax transparency by adopting public country by country reporting rules for large companies in all sectors, to build on what has been decided for the European banking sector.
3. Increase corporate tax harmonisation in Europe by ensuring a compulsory common consolidated corporate tax base in all 28 countries, which makes certain that taxes are paid where profits and real economic value is created.
4. Analyse the negative impacts one member state's tax system can have on other European and developing countries, and provide public recommendations for change.
I am more than happy to support those calls.
And yes, I do occassionally work for Oxfam, but not on this.
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I recall the so called ‘gaging law’ was designed to silence charities in the run up to elections. Not here, thank goodness.
A great deal of time effort and cost has to be wasted though because of that law
No doubt that is what the government wanted
I wonder if the gagging law reduced the amount of lobbyists in parliament?
Don’t all answer at once!!
No doubt this is about the press conference on Wednesday, while most people in the UK will be thinking about the pre-election Budget – http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_AGENDA-15-4568_en.htm#3
Quite a lot of this is being done already:
1. I expect you know that the UN already has a committee on international tax cooperation – http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/tax/
2. The EU has been talking about country-by-country reporting since at least 2010. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/accounting/country-reporting/index_en.htm It will be coming anyway thanks to the OECD’s BEPS project.
3. The CCCTB has been talked about since at least 2001. http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/company_tax/common_tax_base/index_en.htm I doubt there yet any political consensus in the EU for an *optional* agreed tax base, let alone a mandatory one.
4. The EU already has its Code of Conduct on harmful tax competition. http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/company_tax/harmful_tax_practices/index_en.htm
Oxfam knows all that of course
The UN committee is tiny and underfunded
We do not have publiuc CBC
The CCDTB has not happened yet
And as someone who has written more on the EU Code of Conduct I will tell you it’s day is last
You also know all that, I suspect
Your comments are meant to be deliberately misleading, I am sure. They are deliberately misleading as a matter of fact and that says a great deal about you
Once again I am sorry that you feel the need to resort to personal invective. All I was doing was pointing out that, in fact, work has been done or is being done in each of these areas. No doubt you would say that work is not enough. So be it.
Here is today’s press release from the Commissions: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4610_en.htm?locale=en
* automatic exchange of information between Member States on their tax rulings.
* possible new transparency requirements for multinationals (sounds a little like country-by-country reporting)
* reiewing the Code of Conduct on Business Taxation
* quantifying the scale of tax evasion and avoidance (would be good to have another estimate, independent of the member states)
* repealing the Savings Tax Directive (because cross-border reporting within the EU will be substantially expanded under the amended Administrative Cooperation Directive from January 2016)
I have read the announcement
There is no tax justice campaign that I know of that things this anything but a PR exercise to provide cover for Juncker
The reality is that we need real progress, not empty pricesses and decidely limited data exchange on rulings
Oh, the Commission will be publishing an “Action Plan on Corporate Taxation” in the summer, including a re-launch of the CCCTB and implementation of BEPS at EU level.
Glass half full?
Mr Murphy,
Regarding items 1) and 2), the United States Congress under Republican leadership will not support either, and these policies are therefore not implementable.
Regarding items 3) and 4), my understanding is that they would require unanimity among member states to become binding in law. This is very unlikely to ever happen.
Respectfully,
MR
There is so much you have said will never happen that has happened that I ignore you
Dear Mr Murphy,
I entirely correctly predicted that global automatic information exchange would fail because the United States, the world’s largest and most productive economy, home to the global reserve currency and the most sophisticated banking and capital markets, would not join this policy.
While you may choose to ignore this observation mine, it appears that at least some of your closest ideological allies have come to understand and accept it. Please see a recent fairly well-researched piece by the TJN on the issue.
http://www.taxjustice.net/2015/01/26/loophole-usa-vortex-shaped-hole-global-financial-transparency-2/
I was entirely correct with my predictions, and will be again so with Congress’ upcoming rejection of BEPS .
Respectfully.
MR
I am well aware of what TJN said
I can also note that 92 noations are signed up, inclduing many tax havens
So much for your claim