Today the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) and ActionAid are launching a new dataset that I’ve developed over the last year. It’s the product of over a year’s work, mostly by an intrepid team of research assistants in the LSE law department, to code the content of over 500 tax treaties signed by… Continue reading New data and working paper: measuring tax treaty negotiation outcomes
Category: Tax as a development issue
Tax treaties in sub-Saharan Africa: a critical review
The report I authored for Tax Justice Network-Africa is now available. It’s based on field research done a year ago and has been a little while getting into print. Here’s a link to read it online at academia.edu Here’s a link to download the PDF And here’s the introduction: There is growing attention on the… Continue reading Tax treaties in sub-Saharan Africa: a critical review
Some follow-up on parliamentary scrutiny of the UK-Senegal treaty
As my last post anticipated, the ratification of the UK-Senegal tax treaty was debated in parliament last week. It was great that a debate on the impact of a tax treaty between the UK and a developing country happened at all. Some important issues came up: What is the role of the Department for International… Continue reading Some follow-up on parliamentary scrutiny of the UK-Senegal treaty
Questions the opposition should ask about the new UK-Senegal tax treaty
Back in February, the UK and Senegal signed a bilateral tax treaty. The treaty is up for ratification this week, so I thought it time to take a look. Ratification happens through the delegated legislation committee, and entails very little debate. The last time a treaty between the UK and a developing country was ratified,… Continue reading Questions the opposition should ask about the new UK-Senegal tax treaty
Is it or isn’t it a spillover?
Last week’s Global Tax Policy Conference at Maastricht University on “international spillovers in taxation” has got me thinking. In particular, I was fascinated by Belema Obuoforibo’s presentation on the IBFD’s methodology for ‘spillover analyses’ (here is a link to an IBFD Powerpoint describing it). The term ‘spillover’ comes from the IMF, a term they use… Continue reading Is it or isn’t it a spillover?
The Mopani saga and Zambia’s windfall tax: an alternative reading
In 2010, Zambian NGOs obtained a leaked copy of an audit report conducted for the Zambia Revenue Authority into Mopani Copper Mine, a subsidiary of the Swiss behemoth Glencore. I was working at ActionAid at the time, where we took an active interest in the case. The particular allegation concerning systematic transfer pricing abuse contained… Continue reading The Mopani saga and Zambia’s windfall tax: an alternative reading