October 27th, 2010
I am fascinated by the
recent attack on my work and that of John Christensen and the Tax Justice Network by Cayman Finance.
It is not new of course, many tax havens / secrecy jurisdictions have made such attacks before. And no doubt they will do is again. But in making such a tax they show their real colours: they show that they are the real enemies of free and fair markets, and we are their strongest supporters. Why else would they be so annoyed?
If you believe in free markets you believe in tax...September 1st, 2010
As I have noted, there is a popular argument among advocates of tax havens that these jurisdictions provide a positive influence on the world through so-called “tax competition.” Mostly these advocates toss this phrase into their arguments with the misguided hope that those hearing it will not think too long and hard about it, because at the end of the day, it doesn’t make much sense.
As far as I can tell, the most comprehensive definition of tax competition was put forward by Richard Teather, a tax specialist from the UK, in “The Benefits of Tax Competition.” Teather...
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August 5th, 2010
A while ago we pointed to a study by Misereor that had concluded, on the subject of double tax treaties (DTTs) and tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs), that
Only 6 percent of DTTs show a signature of a Low Income Country (with an even smaller participation of 3 percent for Least Developed Countries). The situation with TIEAs is even worse: There is no single LIC (leaving aside LDC) as signing party of any TIEA documented on the OECD website. . . . While G20 and OECD are promoting DTTs and TIEAs as centrepieces of a global standard on transparency...
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September 25th, 2009
The Guardian -- The Cayman Islands leader, William McKeeva Bush, was today forced to postpone his annual budget as the British overseas territory's debt crisis worsens.
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