Taxing multinational companies – Page 5

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

Companies are behaving in precisely the way that our international tax system incentivises them to behave

This is my post published on the LSE Politics and Policy blog last week, written before the corporation tax announcement in the budget. It went down a storm with the UK Independence Party’s Financial Services spokesman: @eurocrat @martinhearson @LSEpoliticsblog Half hearted assertions backed by no evidence. As usual academia with no business acumen — Steven… Continue reading Companies are behaving in precisely the way that our international tax system incentivises them to behave

Have the source and residence principles become redundant?

How typical. You only just get your head round a concept that you learn it’s no longer useful. So it seems to be with the principles of source and residence, based on a thought-provoking conference at the Oxford Centre for Business Taxation last week. To recap. The fundamental problem of international tax is to allocate… Continue reading Have the source and residence principles become redundant?

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?

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