Author: Martin Hearson

Tax in the post 2015 development settlement: opportunities and challenges

This is the short paper I wrote for UNDP based on my presentation last week. Tax is already the biggest source of public finance in developing countries. African governments, for example, raise over ten times more revenue through taxation than through aid. Even if only the “low hanging fruit” are addressed, the result is likely to… Continue reading Tax in the post 2015 development settlement: opportunities and challenges

Do the BRICS present a challenge to the governance of international tax?

For campaigners, journalists and academics, the more interesting answer to the title question of this post would clearly be “yes”. It’s fascinating to think that we might be living through a paradigm shift in the politics of international tax, with the OECD struggling to maintain its relevance in the face of a more and more… Continue reading Do the BRICS present a challenge to the governance of international tax?

Where should tax fit into the post-2015 development settlement?

As readers from development agencies will know, a huge and complex process is currently underway to develop a new set of global ordering principles for international development, to replace the Millenium Development Goals, which expire in 2015. Over the weekend I was happy to be able to attend a conference organised by the United Nations… Continue reading Where should tax fit into the post-2015 development settlement?

A campaigners’ code of conduct and the ABF story

I see Ben Saunders has taken up the ABF story with two really interesting posts, the first relating it to Bill Dodwell’s call for a campaigners’ code of conduct, and second to what on earth Zambia was doing signing its bonkers treaty with Ireland. As I’m writing this in a break from struggling to put… Continue reading A campaigners’ code of conduct and the ABF story

What did we learn from yesterday’s BEPS ‘tweetchat’?

140 character exchanges are unlikely to be the most revealing and nuanced on a topic as complex as the OECD’s ‘base erosion and profit shifting‘ project. But it was interesting that the OECD decided to reach out in this way, and also that questions did not just come from the usual suspects – the Institute… Continue reading What did we learn from yesterday’s BEPS ‘tweetchat’?