August 12th, 2009
Pat Garofalo in the Wonk Room over at ThinkProgress has a fascinating
post today about the companies which are lining up to oppose President Obama's crackdown on corporate abuse of tax deferrals. From
ThinkProgress:
National Journal reported today that some tech-industry giants are getting ready to “intensify their opposition” to the Obama administration’s plan to limit the use of offshore tax deferrals:
High-tech industry giants such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle will intensify their opposition this fall to an Obama administration proposal aimed at limiting what critics insist...
August 12th, 2009
The Times (of London) has published a nifty
factsheet on the country (cough, tax haven, cough, secrecy jurisdiction) of Liechtenstein. I bet you didn't know that it was 1 of only 2 doubly landlocked countries in the world (meaning that its surrounded entirely by other landlocked countries). The only other country to share this distinction is Uzbekistan (whose embassy is, interestingly enough, located right next door to our office). Check out the rest of the facts
here...
August 12th, 2009
Richard Murphy has
noted Christian Aid's response to the Liechtenstein-UK tay deal that was signed yesterday, and it is quite interesting:
The UK government’s new tax deal with Liechtenstein amounts to a welcome admission that much-hyped tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) do not work, Christian Aid says today.
‘The fact that the UK has signed two agreements today – a TIEA and a second one, ensuring that uncooperative UK taxpayers have their Liechtenstein accounts shut down - is a clear sign that TIEAs are almost impossible to use,’ says Christian Aid...
August 12th, 2009
It's just been reported that US and Swiss governmnet authorities have initialed a settlement that would bring about an end to the UBS legal saga. According to the
Washington Post:
In a conference call Wednesday morning with the federal judge presiding over the case, Justice Department lawyer Stuart D. Gibson said the parties had initialed agreements and that they would ask the judge to dismiss the matter when the final documents are signed.
Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed, leaving unclear what each side gained or conceded.
So we still...
