Tax as a development issue – Page 6

Why FATCA might be good for developing countries

Recently I wrote a post explaining that I feel cautious about the burden that compliance with an automatic tax information exchange standard would place on developing countries. Since then a new paper by Itai Grinberg has popped up called Emerging Countries and the Taxation of Offshore Accounts. This amused me. I encountered Grinberg a couple… Continue reading Why FATCA might be good for developing countries

Tax, law and morality: the IF campaign debate

Last night’s debate at St Martin’s in the Fields church, between politicians from what we used to call the three main parties, was quite interesting. Notable that all three were well aware of what the campaign is demanding, and after a bit of work I think we managed to tease some policy differences out of… Continue reading Tax, law and morality: the IF campaign debate

Unitary taxation, Barclays and Africa

I just read the Tax Justice Network briefing which is explained in Richard Murphy’s blog title “Barclays and HSBC make the case for unitary tax in the UK – because we’d have collected £2.6 billion more in 4 years.” Now I haven’t checked out the UK figures at all, but the inclusion of Barclays piqued… Continue reading Unitary taxation, Barclays and Africa

Some heretical thoughts on automatic information exchange and developing countries

Information exchange agreements are one of the main tools open to governments in the fight against tax evasion. They allow tax authorities to investigate tax(non-)payers’ affairs across borders, uncovering unreported income and piecing together tax planning structures. They’re also the main focus of coercive efforts by big economic players to “crack down on tax havens.”… Continue reading Some heretical thoughts on automatic information exchange and developing countries

The new UN tax committee, and why it matters

Nominations are now open [pdf] for the next UN tax committee, whose term will run from July 2013 to June 2017. Although the UN committee is not as influential as the OECD, I think that its composition will be one of the most significant determinants of what happens in international tax over the next four… Continue reading The new UN tax committee, and why it matters

Cancelling tax treaties: a lesson from the 1970s

Mike Lewis at ActionAid had a blog yesterday about the problem posed by Zambia’s tax treaty with Ireland, following up on ActionAid Zambia’s call for the treaty to be renegotiated. But how easy would that be?