“The Tax Justice Network has done more than any other organisation to put fiscal justice at the centre of the policy agenda.” Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty First Century
A new book by the Tax Justice Network brings together some of the influential writing on taxation and the offshore system that is undermining it.
From its earliest days the Tax Justice Network has been formulating an alternative to the governing consensus on tax. Along the way the writings of its members and allies have raised profound questions about the relationship between the state and the most powerful actors in the economy, about the prerogatives of finance, and about the size and significance of the offshore sector.
From development NGOs and environmental campaigners to human rights activists, political theorists and economists, the Network has also reached out to others and developed a shared agenda for deep reform of both the conventional wisdom and our institutional arrangements. The result, captured in the essays and articles collected here, has been a steady expansion of the reforming imagination.
The Tax Justice Network is no longer in the wilderness. It now forms part of a broad movement for reform that has gained in strength and confidence since the financial crisis began in 2007. Its ideas have changed political rhetoric in a number of countries. Those ideas are even starting to influence policy, both nationally and in the global institutions. But resistance is as fierce as ever and there is much still to be done. A decade after the Tax Justice Network began regular publication of Tax Justice Focus, it is time to take stock of what has been achieved, and to chart the way ahead.
The Greatest Invention: Tax and the Campaign for a Just Society is released worldwide on September 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9931616-3-6
216 x 140mm - £12.99 / $18.99 / €17.99
Contact Commonwealth publishing for pre-orders, review copies, interviews, excerpts and features:dan.hind@commonwealth-publishing.com (UK) (0)7789 078188
http://commonwealth-publishing.com/ |
I will be buying a copy.
On a related subject tax & tax avoidance, you (& others) may find this article of interest.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/how-google-could-rig-the-2016-election-121548.html
Whilst written in the context of the upcoming US elections, it raises questions with respect to Internet influence in the UK elections in May – which political party was most in favour of what passes for the current status quo (of industrial scale tax dodging).
Off topic. Friends in HMRC tell me that every screensaver on HMRC computers now bears something they feel looks suspiciously like Government propaganda.
It says: “£515.7 billion. Total revenue increased by £11.9 billion in 2014/15 due to growth in the UK economy and increased compliance activity by HMRC.”
I’ve pointed out that this looks like an increase of about 2% in a year where the Government has been doing its best to boost the economy short term for the election. Is it an impressive figure?
It was only vaguely on track as they had so badly undershot in earlier years
All stats can be lies
This one is
Is it impressive if it is true? Growth AND the supposed extra compliance activity adding 2% I don’t think there was any adjustment fro inflation in this?