July 23rd, 2009
We have long pointed to the fact that the United States is, to a very significant degree, a secrecy jurisdiction, not least through dirty practices offered in places
such as Delaware. It isn't something that people like to mention in polite company.
Now we're very heartened to see the Australian tax office has written an
open submission to the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which includes the following strongly-worded:
"In our opinion, entities established in some states of the USA, for example some US incorporated companies, have some of these same...
July 16th, 2009
On several occasions we have written about a report produced by the Oxford Centre for Business Taxation, which is critical of estimates of illicit flows and other offshore-related phenomena published by TJN and its colleagues.
Professor Michael Devereux of the Centre
has replied in the
Financial Times to an
earlier letter from TJN and its partners. Devereux’s riposte says little of interest, but accuses us of seeking “to spread innuendo about the messenger rather than to engage in constructive debate about the research” – without noting that the letters page of a newspaper – ours was just...
July 9th, 2009
Nick Shaxson has written a great
post on the TJN blog which tears apart the notion that information exchange would somehow hurt people in developing countries. From the post:
Certain think tanks have attacked TJN for proposing transparency and tax compliance, with one group of them arguing that we are putting at risk millions of people including “Jews in France, or homosexuals in Saudi Arabia" by threatening their privacy. Really? We are not aware of a single transparency campaigner, street protestor, anti-corruption campaigner, trade union official, investigative journalist, or dissident of any...
July 6th, 2009
Task Force member Global Financial Integrity echoed the sentiments of other civil society organizations today, including Task Force member Tax Justice Network, in condemning the harassment of Cameroonian journalist Jean-Bosco Talle for his part in fighting corruption in the West African nation. From GFI's
statement:
Following publication of the report “Biens mal acquis” or “Ill-Gotten Gains,” by the French non-profit organization Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development (CCFD) last month, Mr. Talla, editor of the Cameroonian newspaper Germinal, has been harassed and his life has been threatened. The report presents estimates for...
