July 2nd, 2009
There was an awfully genteel protest organised by the Tax Justice Network in Jersey earlier this year. The TJN had joined up with a group of Jersey campaigners who would like the island to wean itself off its dependence on the more creative aspects of modern finance. Christian Aid have estimated that Southern countries lose at least $160 billion every year in unpaid taxes as a result of dodgy accounting by corporations operating on their territory. According to the OECD, there is $5 trillion (or more) parked in offshore tax havens, beyond the reach of impertinent governments and their...
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June 30th, 2009
Just in from the
TJN Blog:
The Tax Justice Network is launching a new project on transfer pricing and mispricing. This is an issue of paramount importance: estimates by Global Financial Integrity, Christian Aid and others show that hundreds of billions of dollars are estimated to be shifted out of developing countries each year by this method alone. It is also a major problem for developed countries, as multinationals use transfer mispricing to shift income to low tax or no tax jurisdictions.
This major new project will be led by some of...
June 22nd, 2009
This past week, Task Force members
Global Financial Integrity,
Global Witness, and
Tax Justice Network USA along with the Center for Corporate Policy, Citizens for Tax Justice, Friends Fiduciary Corporation, Government Accountability Project, MaryKnoll, New Rules for Global Finance, Oxfam America, and Public Citizen submitted a letter to the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) in support of the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (
S. 569).
The
letter states that the legislation:
...will help law enforcement stop the misuse of U.S. corporations for tax fraud, money...
June 8th, 2009
Task Force member and
TJN fellow,
Nicholas Shaxson, co-authored a piece which appeared in the
Financial Times last week. Amazingly, I didn't pick it up until just now. Anyway, from the
FT:
Countries too dependent on extractive industries face three problems. Large foreign exchange inflows lead to the “Dutch disease”: local costs go up, so imports undercut domestic manufacturing and agriculture. Gyrating commodity prices play havoc with budgets. And mineral rents infest politics with corruption and conflict. As everyone fights over the mineral cake, good governance falls apart.
The solution is...
