I have sent the letter that follows to Pascal St Amans, head of tax at the OECD, this morning.
The signatories were all involved in setting up the Tax Justice Network. We remain critical friends of the OECD.
We all recognise the courage, skill, determination and sheer effort required to conclude a global tax deal of the sort that the OECD has just put in place. We want to publicly recognise this, and offer our congratulations, and so thanks.
Of course we have our reservations about that deal. We note them, but we are also confident that the OECD will have those reservations as well. No one could pretend this was a perfect deal even though it was a big step forward for tax justice. The work to make the next step forward has to begin now.
However, the most important part of our letter is the suggestion that it is also time for discussion on tax justice to move on. The headlines now need to be on issues other than corporation tax. There are, quite simply, bigger matters to address. I mention two I am working on in footnotes. We also think tax, Covid and, even more important, climate change should get a look in now.
There is only one agency in the world capable for the foreseeable future of delivering the changes that are needed so that tax might help shape society in the best interests of all in the world. That is the OECD. Those who created the tax justice movement are committed to work with it to achieve that goal. Others are, of course, more than welcome to join us in that task. There is much to do.
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Fabulous stuff and really well done all – and qutie right too, imho.
Richard – FYI (not sure if you have seen this/are aware – be prepared)
https://www.cliffordchance.com/news/news/2021/11/sonia-gilbert-confirmed-as-clifford-chance-s-new-london-head-of-.html
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6861984104456433665/
Some personal news: I am retiring from the Clifford Chance partnership in April, and stepping down from my leadership role now. It’s a job that I love, but after almost 14 years as a partner, the upheaval of the pandemic has led me to reassess my priorities.
I’ll continue on as a “special counsel” for Clifford Chance, to help and support my colleagues. And I’ll work on some independent tax policy projects. However my main objective is to d̶e̶v̶o̶t̶e̶ ̶m̶y̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ ̶f̶u̶l̶l̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶T̶w̶i̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ spend more time with my family
@ Eric_C
“d̶e̶v̶o̶t̶e̶ ̶m̶y̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ ̶f̶u̶l̶l̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶T̶w̶i̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ ” 🙂
Great job!
Should “excepted” in 1(c) be “accepted”, or is it deliberate and if so what does it mean?
Expected
[…] noted a letter I and others had sent to the OECD on taking tax justice forward […]
Pascal was in Lisbon yesterday for an interview at the Web Summit, the so-called largest gathering of tech startups in the world. He only had about 20 minutes and it was with a non-tax specialist journalist from Politico in front of a non-tax audience, so he didn’t go into the nitty gritty of the deal, but he got some messages across, such as that the delegates should tell their CEOs and CFOs that they should be focusing on product, rather than tax engineering. He also confirmed that tax and the environment were next on the OECD’s agenda.
Our discussions are scheduled….
But by convention the details are put published